Just £178,000 of a £1.6 million grant have been claimed by eligible people in need.

Medway Council was initially awarded £4.5 million from the government in April to help residents with the cost-of-living crisis.

Some £2.5 million of this was earmarked for providing food vouchers during the school holidays for children on free school meals.

While a total of £1.6m - for the so-called Household Support Fund - was to be used for food and home essentials, school uniforms, utilities, and some housing costs.

However, a report presented at cabinet found only £178,575 of that sum has been claimed in five months.

Now the application process will be changed to make the process for applying for support easier.

The cabinet heard the reason for the low uptake was due to issues in the application process which people were battling with.

Previously, the relevant form required families to include their income and expenditure information, but will now only ask for bank statements to be attached which will be evaluated by council officers for eligibility.

The form will also have an information box added where applicants can detail their reasons for applying for the grants.

The report said there had been a decrease in applicants over time and more were being rejected for being ineligible.

Since April, 2,550 claims have been made for the support, of which only 636 were accepted, with another 95 still pending.

Criteria to receive help include being a Medway resident over the age of 16, having less than £500 in the bank, proof of demonstrable hardship, and not having other possible sources of income that could meet the needs the support aims to help with.

The council has not suggested any change in these criteria, however, it is concerned about the low uptake for the scheme.

Meanwhile, it was also revealed at the meeting that school meal vouchers will rise from £15 to £25 per week in anticipation of higher costs during the winter months - since April £1,250,000 has been spent on this scheme.

Additionally, savings made elsewhere in the fund, such as the £114,000 underspend in administration costs, were agreed to be reallocated elsewhere in the scheme.

And £150,000 will be provided to the Medway Food Partnership which aims to improve access to healthy and sustainable food and increase education around healthy living.

Deputy council leader Cllr Teresa Murray (Lab) said it was important to make the changes in order to provide support to everyone who needs it.

She said: “We know that with inflation as high as it is and the struggles that people are facing with rises in rent and mortgages we would’ve seen many more people coming forward.

“We have to make sure we’re making the best use that we can of the Housing Support Fund, and that it accords with everything that we’re trying to do with our cost of living policy.”