Councils in Northwest England will be allocated £66million aimed to help people with paying for essentials.

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) awarded the money today (April 1) through an extension to its ‘Household Support Fund’ – which it said councils can use to ‘support vulnerable residents with the cost of essentials including food, energy bills, and emergency costs like new boilers’.

It is as yet unclear how much exactly Cumbria's two councils - Cumberland and Westmoland and Furness - will receive.

The central government said it means people across the Northwest will have received £396.4million in investment from the fund since its launch in October 2021.

Work and Pensions secretary Mel Stride said: “We’ve protected vulnerable people from cost of living pressures with the biggest support package in Europe, preventing 1.3million people falling into poverty.

“Extending the Household Support Fund means people in the Northwest can access help with essentials, as we grow the economy by making work pay - cutting taxes by £900 for the average worker, raising the National Living Wage after seven successive months of real wage growth, and driving down inflation.”

National Living Wage is increasing to £11.44 an hour for people aged 21 and up, and comes alongside what the government is called ‘a raft of measures’ to ‘see million of people better off’, such as an increase in local housing allowance worth £800 a year for 1.6million eligible households; 15 hours of free childcare for eligible working parents and; another energy price cap.