Crisis and Resilience Fund: Financial Resilience and Community Cohesion

Description

From 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2029, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is to provide grant funding to the Council through the Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) to: - support low income households facing a financial shock; and - invest in preventative and resilience building activity that reduces future crisis demand and builds community cohesion. The CRF operates across four interconnected strands 1. Crisis payments: This strand is delivered by the Council via a front door service taking applications from residents. Applications are assessed against an eligibility criteria and if successful a crisis payment is made. The delivery of this strand is not in scope for this PME. 2. Housing payments: This strand delivers targeted help for residents who need support with housing-related costs (replacing the existing Discretionary Housing Payment system). This will be delivered by district councils in Years 1 and 2 and by the new unitary authority (arising from the planned local government reorganisation) in Year 3. The delivery of this strand is not in scope for this PME. 3. The Resilience Services strand focuses on building individuals’ financial resilience. This is defined as the ability to withstand and recover from financial shocks. The aim of this service is to reduce repeat crisis presentations over time. 4. The Community Cohesion and Coordination strand focuses on: - strengthening local coordination of support services, - improving partnership working across statutory services, VCSE organisations, and community groups; - addressing service gaps, duplication, and fragmentation; and - improving residents’ ability to access appropriate support through clear pathways and trusted local connections. Keywords: Resilience, Financial, Fund