Ukrainian refugees - Find a freedom of information request

We are researching the amount of money actually spent on Ukrainian refugees to date, over the nearly 3 years that Ukrainians have been arriving to us.

Please provide the following data to us under the Freedom of Information Act. As you are obliged to report much of this to MHCLG, it should be easily available.

We would like the information broken down into 4 categories - A, B, C and D - as described below.

Answers can be provided after the colons, in an email response. Please only answer D if time permits, rather than rejecting the whole FoI.

A. Homes for Ukraine Tariffs received Please provide the total H4U tariff you received to date (not including the Homelessness Prevention, host 'thank you' payments or Education grants, which are all additional): [We refer to Homes for Ukraine funding - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) where these numbers are published up to June 2024. This is on the basis of £10500 per H4U arrival up to 31 Dec 2022, and £5900 per adult H4U arrival after this date (children remained at £10500 throughout).] Please provide the amount spent to date from the tariff received on Ukrainians: Broken down if possible by: - Council staff costs: - Local partner costs: - Temporary accommodation costs: - Private or social housing rent / deposits costs: If possible, please provide details of the rest of the tariff money: - How much is still unspent (PLEASE ANSWER THIS even if everything else is not answered): - How much was spent on other nationalities or groups:

B. Homelessness Prevention Grant Figures received by you are published here: £109 million Homelessness Prevention Grant 2023-24 top-up local authority allocations (England only) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk); however, in some cases, there are multiple lower tier authorities each in receipt of monies. In this case, if you are not able to collate the information from your lower tier authorities in time, please skip this. Please provide the total amount received in 2023 / 2024 under this grant to your authority as a whole: Please provide figures of the money received under this specific grant that has been spent on Ukrainian refugees to prevent them from becoming homeless: Please break this down if possible by:

- Amount spent on private rented or social housing which is irrecoverable (e.g. First month's rent paid):

- Amount spent on private rented or social housing which is recoverable (e.g. Deposits or Guarantor schemes):

- Amount spent on temporary accommodation: If possible, please provide details of the rest of the money:

- How much is still unspent: - How much was spent on other nationalities or groups:

C. Numbers of Ukrainians funded into accommodation by the council Regardless of whether money came from the H4U tariff or the Homelessness Prevention Grant, please provide the following:

- Indication of absolute number of Ukrainians who were given council funds or guarantees to move into private rented accommodation or social housing, vs all Ukrainians arriving in the borough.

- Indication of absolute number of Ukrainians who were given temporary accommodation

D. Education grant (please skip this if time does not permit) - Total funding received according to: Homes for Ukraine education and childcare grant conditions of funding - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Please provide the total grant received here to date: Please provide the total funding spent so far from this grant on Ukrainian refugees:

Please provide the total funding spent so far from this grant on non-Ukrainians:

I can confirm that the information requested is held by Lincolnshire County Council. I have detailed below the information that is being released to you.

A. £13,829,614 This data is published each quarter. This total figure matches the sum of the published data, which is also the same as the money we have actually received.

Please note that this does not include the most recent published allocation as his has not yet been received by the council. As at the end of September 2024 – the last time the council submitted a quarterly return to central government - these were our expenditures under the headings provided for this FOI.

Council staff costs £1,433,886

Local partner costs £1,316,148

Temporary accommodation costs £168,287

Private or social housing rent/deposits £76,542 *Including the provision of essential household items.

Total of all the above = £2,994,863

There is of course many other costs associated with the HfU scheme that the council has utilised the tariff for which this FOI has not requested.

We must also commit unspent funding into the future as the tariff is a one-off payment and the scheme currently remains open ended.

Each person that arrives may reside in the county for up to 4.5 years either in a hosting arrangement or living independently.

Recently the government published more information related to the launch of the Ukraine Permission Extension scheme in February 2024 (that will enable Ukrainian visa scheme holders to apply for a further 18 month stay in the UK). From April 2025, the government are also making changes to Thank You payments.

The council is awaiting detailed guidance and working through the impacts to LAs. If possible, please provide details of the rest of the tariff money:

- How much is still unspent (PLEASE ANSWER THIS even if everything else is not answered):

We are also in the process of reconciling accounts ahead of 24/25 year end.

For these reasons, we are currently unable to answer this question.

£0 was spent on other nationalities or groups.

B. Lincolnshire is a two-tier local government system so this question needs to be redirected to the 7 Local Housing Authorities.

Please provide figures of the money received under this specific grant that has been spent on Ukrainian refugees to prevent them from becoming homeless:

Lincolnshire is a two-tier local government system so this question needs to be redirected to the 7 Local Housing Authorities.

You may also wish to make it clear if you would like this information in relation to all 3 Ukrainian Visas or just Homes for Ukraine.

If Homes for Ukraine only, information has already been provided in our answers to Question A as the Homes for Ukraine tariff has been used to cover these costs, not the top up to the Homelessness Prevention Grant.

C. Lincolnshire is a two-tier local government system so this question needs to be redirected to the 7 Local Housing Authorities.

Regardless of whether money came from the H4U tariff or the Homelessness Prevention Grant, please provide the following: - Indication of absolute number of Ukrainians who were given council funds or guarantees to move into private rented accommodation or social housing, vs all Ukrainians arriving in the borough (This needs redirecting to the Local Housing Authorities especially if you would like these figures applicable to Ukrainians on all 3 Ukrainian Visa Schemes)

D. Please provide the total grant received here to date: £2.345m

Please provide the total funding spent so far from this grant on Ukrainian refugees:

£1.691m

Please provide the total funding spent so far from this grant on non-Ukrainians: £0

Please find the District Council contact details below.

foi@boston.gov.uk

customerservices@e-lindsey.gov.uk

foi@n-kesteven.gov.uk info@sholland.gov.uk

foi@southkesteven.gov.uk

customer.services@west-lindsey.gov.uk

legal@lincoln.gov.uk