Bracknell Forest Council is stepping in to provide help for poorer families this Christmas.

The council is helping low income households by providing help to buy food and other essentials.

The support is being provided using  £555,468 from the Household Support Fund by the Department of Work and Pensions.

The funding is being used in Bracknell Forest to pay for free school meals during the Christmas Holidays, the February 2022 Half Term and the Easter break.

Eligible children will receive supermarket vouchers worth £15 per week.

READ MORE: Free school meals: Around one in nine Bracknell Forest pupils on free school meals

These vouchers are given to eligible families through the child’s school or early years education before each of the school holidays.

Additionally, the council has provided a one-off £50 supermarket voucher to more than 4,800 households in the area, which was granted to needy families who were receiving help with the costs of council tax through the council tax support scheme.

Also, the council has been giving out grant funding to support charities to facilitate their activities.

Beneficiaries include Bracknell Foodbank, which will use the money to buy fresh food for its users and The Ark disability charity, which will spend the money on low income carers to help them pay for food, utility bills and other essentials.

Councillor Paul Bettison OBE, Leader of Bracknell Forest Council (Conservative, Little Sandhurst and Wellington), said: “In every community there are households who require assistance and, as a council, we aim to support as many of these residents as possible. Nobody should be worrying about where their next meal is coming from or how they are going to heat their homes, especially at this time of year.

“Through the Household Support Fund, we are able to offer assistance to those in need to ensure that essentials are covered.

“We are also lucky in Bracknell Forest to have some great partners with whom we work to provide invaluable support.

“Through grants, we are able to enhance this support to ensure the financially vulnerable within our communities are provided with the assistance they need.”

Those who require the support available can find more information at www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk

READ MORE: One in five female pensioners living in poverty, says Age UK

Funding has also been distributed to the council’s Local Welfare Scheme, which supports people who are facing unexpected costs and need emergency help; the rough sleeper team, which aims to help rough sleepers with the essentials they need; the Children’s Social Care emergency fund and the leaving care team.

The measures to help poorer households such as the supermarket voucher programme were approved at the council’s executive committee meeting in November and are ready to roll out now.

The committee also agreed a spend of over £1 million to buy six one-bedroom homes for those who are homeless and rough sleepers in the area.