Purpose

To consider indicative funding
levels against eligible criteria of the Crisis Resilience Fund
April 2026.

Content

1.         That the
Crisis and Resilience Fund grant provided by the Department of Work
and Pensions for the purpose of the funding for the period April
2026 to March 2029, be accepted.

2.         That the
proposed eligible spending themes and indicative levels of funding
allocations, be approved as shown in Table 1.

3.         That
authority be delegated to the Director of Finance and Resources, in
consultation with the Cabinet member for Resources and Customer
Experience, to administer the Crisis and Resilience Fund Programme
2026/29 and to make any necessary amendments to funding allocations
and plans to ensure that the grant is fully utilised.

Table 1: proposed eligible
spending themes and indicative levels of funding
allocations

Eligible Spending Theme

CRF Criteria - Draft Plan Activities

Indicative % FundEstimate

Crisis -
CRF guidance describes crisis as a Financial Shock.
 
 

-         
Online Applications will be available throughout the
year

-         
Trusted partner and third-party referrals will be
accepted to support a customer in crisis.

-         
Root cause for Crisis Support needs to be reported.
Actions need to be established with the customer to improve their
financial resilience over the long term.

20%

Community
Co-ordination and Wrap Around Support.
The
approach addresses financial, mental health, and systemic
challenges through integrated support services.

?         
The Council will continue to complete Affordability
/ Financial Assessments in respect of housing needs, priority
debts, collection and welfare/ care support.

?         
Intervention and review periods will be agreed with
the customer to check point financial resilience.

?         
Holistic wraparound support will be available
through community and voluntary sectors to build
resilience.

?         
Family centres will continue to operate and provide
support, advice and activities that connect and enhance the local
support landscape.

?         
Parish Councils will be engaged.

?         
Schools and Public Health will form an active role
in providing holistic support and signposting to care providers as
well as local funds / grants.

14%

Resilience
services - Proactive Campaigns.
Strategies that target financial distress early to prevent
crises such as homelessness or severe debt will be
developed.

-         
The Council will continue to use analytics to
support campaigns and the financial profiling of
distress.

-         
Outreach campaigns will identify households that are
just about managing, and service areas will signpost to support and
advice services that will increase resilience and reduce risk of
future hardship.

-         
Priority Debt Support will be provided to prevent
decline into crisis.

35%

Resilience
and Advice Services
Services to be delivered by authorities and/or external
providers to improve financial resilience to residents.
Where resilience services are already in place CRF can be used
to expand these services.

-         
Budget and Income Maximisation – Such as
benefit checks, application support will be delivered by the
council.

-         
Employment, training advice, access to support
grants, community childcare, back to work mentoring and CV building
will be facilitated by external partners / voluntary
sector.

-         
Income soothing – access to affordable credit,
saving behaviours, insurance take up, future planning services and
financial education will be from an accredited provider.

7%

Housing Costs

-         
Replacement of Discretionary Housing Payments
Fund

-         
Additional Crisis payments can be made to secure
tenancy 

12%

Admin

?         
Budget and Income Maximisation – Such as
benefit checks, application support will be delivered by the
council. 

?         
ICT Dashboards will continue to be funded to provide
crisis analytics

?         
Welfare calculators will continue to be
funded.

12%