[Withdrawn] COVID Winter Grant Scheme determination: 1 December 2020 to 31 March 2021
Updated 6 July 2021
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2021
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-winter-grant-scheme/covid-winter-grant-scheme-determination
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (“the Secretary of State”), in exercise of the powers conferred by section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003, makes the following determination:
Citation
1. This determination may be cited as the COVID Winter Grant Scheme Determination 2020 No 31/5256.
Purpose of the grant
2. The purpose of the grant is to provide support to upper tier local authorities in England for expenditure lawfully incurred or to be incurred by them in accordance with the grant conditions to provide support over the winter to children and households who are experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, poverty, where they are impacted by the ongoing public health emergency and where alternative sources of assistance may be unavailable.
Determination
3. The Secretary of State determines as set out in Annex A, the authorities to which grant is to be paid and the amount of grant to be paid.
Grant conditions
4. Pursuant to section 31(3) and 31(4) of the Local Government Act 2003, the Secretary of State determines that the grant will be paid subject to the conditions in Annex B.
Treasury consent
5) Before making this determination in relation to the upper tier local authorities in England, the Secretary of State obtained the consent of the Treasury.
Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions:
Donna Ward
A senior civil servant within the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
Annex A: Funding levels per county council or unitary authority
| County council or unitary authority (UA) | DWP allocation of £170 million |
|---|---|
| Barking and Dagenham London Borough | £870,076.68 |
| Barnet London Borough | £986,960.35 |
| Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council | £946,111.32 |
| Bath and North East Somerset Council | £386,700.64 |
| Bedford UA | £482,305.73 |
| Bexley London Borough | £619,722.83 |
| Birmingham City Council | £5,188,935.15 |
| Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council | £645,965.10 |
| Blackpool Borough Council | £704,710.72 |
| Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council | £1,110,882.11 |
| Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council | £1,068,327.58 |
| Bracknell Forest Borough Council | £221,214.27 |
| Brent London Borough | £1,142,416.48 |
| Brighton and Hove Council | £865,416.71 |
| Bristol Council | £1,640,461.40 |
| Bromley London Borough | £753,861.37 |
| Buckinghamshire County Council | £967,503.82 |
| Bury Metropolitan Borough Council | £619,418.58 |
| Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council | £734,010.82 |
| Cambridgeshire County Council | £1,459,490.26 |
| Camden London Borough | £783,243.59 |
| Central Bedfordshire UA | £587,054.00 |
| Cheshire East UA | £880,471.92 |
| Cheshire West and Chester UA | £925,446.97 |
| City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council | £2,280,372.57 |
| City of London | £20,166.03 |
| City of York Council | £416,729.66 |
| Cornwall County UA | £1,831,567.30 |
| County of Herefordshire District Council | £537,980.55 |
| Coventry City Council | £1,292,612.14 |
| Croydon London Borough | £1,206,805.20 |
| Cumbria County Council | £1,496,417.79 |
| Darlington Borough Council | £364,817.20 |
| Derby City Council | £899,489.62 |
| Derbyshire County Council | £2,181,024.15 |
| Devon County Council | £2,042,754.05 |
| Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council | £1,203,509.07 |
| Dorset Council | £922,153.80 |
| Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council | £1,058,104.52 |
| Durham County UA | £1,872,512.86 |
| Ealing London Borough | £1,068,982.09 |
| East Riding of Yorkshire Council | £825,096.34 |
| East Sussex County Council | £1,594,930.86 |
| Enfield London Borough | £1,149,542.86 |
| Essex County Council | £3,838,050.28 |
| Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council | £740,348.86 |
| Gloucestershire County Council | £1,507,674.65 |
| Greenwich London Borough | £967,678.82 |
| Hackney London Borough | £1,152,002.41 |
| Halton Borough Council | £519,963.33 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough | £585,126.11 |
| Hampshire County Council | £2,898,701.72 |
| Haringey London Borough | £986,329.83 |
| Harrow London Borough | £588,955.86 |
| Hartlepool Council | £396,948.59 |
| Havering London Borough | £664,716.69 |
| Hertfordshire County Council | £2,493,530.80 |
| Hillingdon London Borough | £831,315.79 |
| Hounslow London Borough | £823,377.35 |
| Isle of Wight Council | £456,845.34 |
| Isles of Scilly Council | £4,147.67 |
| Islington London Borough | £877,270.22 |
| Kensington and Chelsea Royal Borough | £471,864.58 |
| Kent County Council | £4,504,098.51 |
| Kingston Upon Hull City Council | £1,229,116.79 |
| Kingston upon Thames Royal Borough | £343,579.32 |
| Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council | £1,487,770.76 |
| Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council | £740,731.55 |
| Lambeth London Borough | £1,118,444.74 |
| Lancashire County Council | £3,920,808.87 |
| Leeds City Council | £2,837,556.77 |
| Leicester City Council | £1,401,735.27 |
| Leicestershire County Council | £1,462,162.43 |
| Lewisham London Borough | £1,082,507.93 |
| Lincolnshire County Council | £2,223,450.43 |
| Liverpool City Council | £2,438,778.60 |
| London Borough of Richmond upon Thames | £336,857.43 |
| Luton Borough Council | £732,712.95 |
| Manchester City Council | £2,581,417.35 |
| Medway Borough Council | £908,596.17 |
| Merton London Borough | £476,193.25 |
| Middlesbrough Borough | £659,634.41 |
| Milton Keynes Council | £722,191.40 |
| Newcastle upon Tyne Metropolitan District Council | £1,147,567.52 |
| Newham London Borough | £1,354,166.89 |
| Norfolk County Council | £2,740,592.35 |
| North East Lincolnshire Council | £628,462.94 |
| North Lincolnshire Council | £532,566.93 |
| North Somerset Council | £528,410.63 |
| North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council | £644,988.11 |
| North Yorkshire County Council | £1,435,400.85 |
| Northamptonshire County Council | £2,080,715.35 |
| Northumberland County UA | £992,515.33 |
| Nottingham City Council | £1,414,274.85 |
| Nottinghamshire County Council | £2,316,008.18 |
| Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council | £974,688.98 |
| Oxfordshire | £1,367,906.39 |
| Peterborough City Council | £743,661.56 |
| Plymouth City Council | £926,040.55 |
| Portsmouth City Council | £765,635.46 |
| Reading Borough Council | £464,497.68 |
| Redbridge London Borough | £788,900.75 |
| Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council | £522,778.70 |
| Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council | £936,916.05 |
| Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council | £1,007,395.16 |
| Rutland County Council District Council | £63,022.00 |
| Salford Metropolitan District Council | £1,089,353.76 |
| Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council | £1,404,606.44 |
| Sefton | £980,471.32 |
| Sheffield City Council | £2,090,323.22 |
| Shropshire County UA | £841,634.07 |
| Slough Borough Council | £475,125.36 |
| Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council | £565,838.18 |
| Somerset County Council | £1,545,187.24 |
| South Gloucestershire Council | £569,161.01 |
| South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council | £596,981.79 |
| Southampton City Council | £900,866.24 |
| Southend-on-Sea Borough Council | £573,689.90 |
| Southwark London Borough | £1,111,657.80 |
| St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council | £716,322.51 |
| Staffordshire County Council | £2,221,422.84 |
| Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council | £867,758.09 |
| Stockton-On-Tees Borough Council | £679,491.40 |
| Stoke-on-Trent City Council | £1,083,577.42 |
| Suffolk County Council | £2,077,927.29 |
| Sunderland City Council | £1,071,863.77 |
| Surrey County Council | £2,126,391.50 |
| Sutton London Borough | £461,996.24 |
| Swindon Borough Council | £614,935.46 |
| Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council | £894,614.60 |
| Telford and Wrekin Council | £609,359.45 |
| Thurrock Council | £523,003.90 |
| Torbay Borough Council | £500,463.83 |
| Tower Hamlets London Borough | £1,203,030.43 |
| Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council | £588,244.62 |
| Wakefield Metropolitan District Council | £1,259,170.55 |
| Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council | £1,134,745.58 |
| Waltham Forest London Borough | £945,547.02 |
| Wandsworth London Borough | £836,207.30 |
| Warrington Borough Council | £581,642.70 |
| Warwickshire County Council | £1,404,610.50 |
| West Berkshire District Council | £278,888.42 |
| West Sussex County Council | £1,989,591.80 |
| Westminster City Council | £766,382.48 |
| Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council | £1,124,537.72 |
| Wiltshire County UA | £1,107,932.98 |
| Windsor and Maidenhead Royal Borough Council | £236,355.75 |
| Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council | £1,224,616.93 |
| Wokingham District Council | £208,703.00 |
| Wolverhampton Metropolitan Borough Council | £1,061,922.62 |
| Worcestershire County Council | £1,607,260.87 |
| Total | £170,000,000 |
Annex B: COVID Winter Grant Scheme Determination 2020 grant conditions
1. In this Annex and Annex C:
- ‘the Scheme’ means the use by the authority of as much of the grant money identified in Annex A as it deems necessary to provide support over the winter to children and households who are experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, poverty, where they are impacted by the ongoing public health emergency, and where alternative sources of assistance may be unavailable
- ‘the Department’ means the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
- ‘the authority’ means any local authority listed in Annex A
- ‘the Secretary of State’ means the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
- ‘the period’ means the period of time from 1 December 2020 to 31 March 2021
2. The grant is only paid to the authority to support eligible expenditure (see paragraphs 4 to 7 below).
3. The authority must have regard to any guidance issued by the Department or sources of information and data available to it that may assist in the decision-making regarding the Scheme.
Eligible expenditure
4. Eligible expenditure means payments made, or committed to, by the authority or any person acting on behalf of the authority, during the period, under the Scheme.
5. Unless the Secretary of State decides otherwise (for all authorities or any one authority), the authority must determine individual eligibility in its area for assistance under the Scheme and the means by which assistance will be provided (whether directly by the authority or through a third party) and target its support as follows:
(a) the authority must ensure that:
(i) at least 80% of the grant is allocated to support households that include:
-
a person who will be under the age of 19 as at 31 March 2021, or
-
a person aged 19 or over in respect of whom a child-related benefit is paid or free school meals are provided during the period, and
(ii) up to 20% of the grant is used to assist other households, and
(b) the authority must ensure that:
(i) at least 80% of the grant is allocated to support with food, energy costs (for heating, lighting and cooking) and water costs (for household purposes, including sewerage), and
(ii) up to 20% of the grant is allocated to support with other essential expenditure related to food, heating, lighting, cooking, water and sewerage needs, but excluding rent or other housing costs.
6. If the authority or any third party incurs any of the following costs, they must be excluded from eligible expenditure:
a) contributions in kind,
b) payments for activities of a political or exclusively religious nature,
c) depreciation, amortisation or impairment of fixed assets,
d) input VAT reclaimable from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC),
e) interest payments or service charge payments for finance leases,
f) gifts, other than promotional items with a value of no more than £10 in a year to any one person,
g) entertaining (entertaining for this purpose means anything that would be a taxable benefit to the person being entertained, according to current UK tax regulations), or
h) statutory fines, criminal fines or penalties.
and, for the avoidance of doubt, the exclusions at a) and f) above do not apply to the provision of direct assistance, including food, to the intended eligible beneficiaries of the Scheme.
7. The authority must not deliberately incur liabilities for eligible expenditure before there is an operational need for it to do so.
Payment arrangements
8. The grant will be paid according to the profile attached at Annex C.
9. If at any time the authority becomes aware that the above profile no longer reflects the pattern of eligible expenditure during the period, the authority must inform the Department as soon as possible. The Secretary of State reserves the right to alter the timing or amount of grant payments accordingly.
Statement of Grant Usage
- The authority must prepare a Statement of Grant Usage:
a) from the start of the period to 31 January 2021 inclusive to be submitted to the Department on or before 14 February 2021, and
b) for the remainder of the period to be submitted to the Department on or before 21 April 2021.
The Statement of Grant Usage must be in the form agreed between the authority and the Department and must provide details of eligible expenditure in the relevant period. The Statement of Grant Usage must be certified by the authority’s Section 151 officer, to the best of the officer’s knowledge, that the amounts shown on the statement are all eligible expenditure and that the grant has been used for the purposes intended.
11. If the Statement of Grant Usage identifies any overpayment of grant, the authority must, unless offset by the Department in the next payment, repay this amount within 30 days of being asked by the Department.
12. The Secretary of State may at any time require a further external validation to be carried out by officers of the Department or an appropriately qualified independent accountant or auditor, on the use of the grant.
Progress report and management information return
13. The authority must provide a progress report and management information return with each Statement of Grant Usage in relation to the time periods, and on or before the dates, specified in paragraph 10 in accordance with the guidance issued by the Department.
Financial management
14. The authority must maintain a sound system of internal financial controls.
15. If the authority has any grounds for suspecting financial irregularity in the use of any grant paid under this Determination, it must notify the Department immediately, explain what steps are being taken to investigate the suspicion and keep the Department informed about the progress of the investigation. For these purposes ‘financial irregularity’ includes fraud or other impropriety, mismanagement, and the use of grant for purposes other than those for which it was provided.
Records to be kept
16. The authority must maintain reliable, accessible and up to date accounting records with an adequate audit trail for all expenditure funded by grant monies under this Determination.
17. The authority and any person acting on behalf of the authority must allow:
a) the Comptroller and Auditor General or appointed representatives, or
b) the Secretary of State or appointed representatives,
free access at all reasonable times to all documents (including computerised documents and data) and other information as are connected to the grant payable under this Determination, or to the purposes for which grant was used, subject to the provisions in paragraph 18.
18. The documents, data and information referred to in paragraph 17 are such which the Secretary of State or the Comptroller and Auditor General may reasonably require for the purposes of ‘spot checking’ administrative costs or significant amounts paid under the Scheme or a financial audit of any department or other public body or for carrying out examinations into the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which any department or other public body has used its resources. The authority must provide such further explanations as are reasonably required for these purposes.
19. Paragraphs 17 and 18 do not constitute a requirement for the examination, certification or inspection of the accounts of the Authority by the Comptroller and Auditor General under section 6(3) of the National Audit Act 1983. The Secretary of State and Comptroller and Auditor General will seek access in a measured manner to minimise any burden on the authority and will avoid duplication of effort by seeking and sharing information with local auditors.
Breach of conditions and recovery of grant
20. If the authority fails to comply with any of these conditions, or if any overpayment is made under this grant or any amount is paid in error, or if any of the events set out in paragraph 21 occurs, the Secretary of State may reduce, suspend or withhold grant payments or require the repayment of the whole or any part of the grant monies paid, as may be determined by the Secretary of State and notified in writing to the authority. Such sum as has been notified will immediately become repayable to the Secretary of State who may set off the sum against any future amount due to the authority from central government.
21. The events referred to in paragraph 20 are:
a) the authority purports to transfer or assign any rights, interests or obligations arising under this Determination without the prior agreement of the Secretary of State,
b) any information provided in any application for grant monies payable under this Determination, or in any subsequent supporting correspondence is found to be significantly incorrect or incomplete in the opinion of the Secretary of State,
c) it appears to the Secretary of State that other circumstances have arisen or events have occurred that are likely to significantly affect the authority’s ability to deliver the Scheme,
d) the authority’s Section 151 officer is unable to provide reasonable assurance that the Statement of Grant Usage, in all material respects, fairly presents the eligible expenditure in the period in accordance with the definitions and conditions in this Determination, or
e) the authority fails to provide the Statement of Grant Usage and a progress report and management information return by the date(s) specified in paragraph 10.
Annex C: Payment arrangements
The payments will be made to the authority in three instalments as follows:
a) 50% at the start of the period
b) 25% at the end of February 2021 subject to any offsetting in accordance with paragraph 20 of Annex B following receipt of the first Statement of Grant Usage and progress report and management information return, and
c) 25% in April or May 2021 subject to any offsetting in accordance with paragraph 20 of Annex B following receipt of the second Statement of Grant Usage and progress report and management information return.