LOCAL WELFARE ASSISTANCE SCHEMES

That this House recognises the benefit of Local Welfare Assistance Schemes for people in need; notes the help they have provided to people in urgent need following an emergency or unforeseen event; regrets the decision by the 2013 Government to devolve responsibility to local councils and to stop providing a separate cash grant for these schemes in 2015; further regrets that the number of people benefiting from these schemes has plummeted by 75 per cent since 2013; further notes that 1 in 7 local authority areas in England no longer have a local welfare assistance scheme in place at all; and calls on the Government to reintroduce a separate cash grant to local government to fund a local welfare assistance scheme in every local authority area.