The huge monetary and fiscal stimulus measures announced by the government and the Bank of England has seen amongst other measures interest rates lowered by 0.5% and a significant package of targeted measures to help support those affected.

One of these measures was the launch of a new £500 million Hardship Fund to help support economically vulnerable people and households. The details on this fund are hard to come by, but it appears the money will be distributed to Local Authorities by government. The government expects most of this funding to be used to provide more council tax relief, either through existing Local Council Tax Support schemes or similar measures.

This Hardship Fund will likely need to be scaled up over the coming months as the full force of COVID-19 becomes apparent. We would also be interested to see further information on who will be eligible to claim from this fund. We will publish more information on this scheme as it becomes available.