Thousands of households could get up to £180 free cash to help with rising cost of living, soaring food and energy bills

HARD-UP households could get up to £180 free cash to help with soaring bills as the cost of living crisis bites down hard.

Thousands of families and pensioners are being clobbered with rocketing energy bills and are met with eye watering costs on the supermarket shelves.

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Rising inflation has meant the price of everything is going up, so plenty of consumers are left worrying about how they’ll cough up the funds for the next bill through the door.

The government pummelled extra money into the Household Support Fund this year though, to help ease the pressure some bill payers felt, with plenty of cash grants on offer.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak added another £500 million to the pot so more families and low income households could benefit.

That money has been dished out to local councils, whose decision it is to allocate money to those that need it most.

One council has decided to divvy up part of its funds to vulnerable families and pensioners.

Cornwall Council has a total of £4.5 million to hand out.

So it’s decided to give around 16,500 pensioners living in the area, a one-off payment of £100.

At the same time, the council is also giving around 15,500 families who are eligible for free school meals, a one-off payment of £80 per child.

Any multigenerational household could be in line for up to £180 worth of help then.

The council released details on the funding in a statement just yesterday, so exactly how you can claim the cash hasn’t been fully hashed out yet.

But it did confirm that pensioners in line for the £100 will receive a letter with a code that allows them to receive the cash payment at their nearest Post Office.

Meanwhile, parents and carers will have to sit tight for more details on applying for their £80 to be released – but to qualify your child must already be receiving free school meals.

Typically though, the money can go towards covering grocery bills, utility bills and more.

The last bout of funding saw residents in Barnsley in line for up to £200 in vouchers to spend at supermarkets and shops including Aldi, Asda, Argos and Currys, for example.

And North Yorkshire residents were able to claim a £125 voucher to help pay for food and other essentials, in the first round of the scheme too.

This time around, those in the Norfolk area can get £120 in food vouchers to cover meals for kids, with the council’s latest hand-out.

And parents in Brighton and Hove could get £105 to cover essentials over the school breaks this May and throughout the summer this year.

Each council offers up something different, and eligibility rules can vary too.

Check with your own local authority to see if you can apply, and find out just how much you could be entitled to.

But be warned that while plenty have already begun dishing out their own Household Support Fund grants, some towns may be waiting until September time to claim.

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk