Crisis and Resilience Fund

From April 2026 the Crisis and Resilience Fund, known as CRF,  has been made available to local authorities in England to support low-income households who encounter a financial shock and to support activity that builds individual and community financial resilience. The Crisis and Resilience Fund replaces the former Housing Support Fund and the Discretionary Payment scheme which both ended on 31 March 2026.

The aims of the Crisis and Resilience Fund are

  • Provision of effective crisis  needs-based assistance to those with low incomes facing financial shocks
  • Improving individual financial resilience enabling individuals to manage financial shocks
  • Bolstering the local level support landscape through joined up local level support services

The fund will be available for a three-year period, from April 2026 to March 2029.

Derbyshire County Council will administer the majority of the fund and has agreed delivery plans for the first year of the programme. The plans involve a range of organisations across Derbyshire working together to provide support.

Work is currently underway to establish these services, with support expected to become available from autumn 2026. We will update our website with this information as further details are confirmed.

 

Support Available Now

 

Housing Payments

 

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP's) ended in England on 31 March 2026. From 1 April 2026, Discretionary Housing Payments have been replaced by the Housing Payment strand of the Crisis and Resilience fund (CRF).

Housing Payments can be awarded where an applicant requires short term financial assistance with housing costs. We will consider making a Housing Payment award where a household faces a financial shock, and these financial difficulties are causing exceptional hardship or putting a home at risk.  It is a limited fund and unfortunately, we cannot help everyone. 

We always expect that all reasonable steps are being taken to claim any income and benefits entitlements and to be taking reasonable steps to reduce expenditure.

We can only consider an application for Housing Payment if you have been awarded 

  • Housing Benefit (HB) or
  • Universal Credit (UC) that includes housing costs element

Housing Payments can cover:

  • Shortfalls in rent because of restrictions to Housing Benefit or Universal Credit housing costs
  • Rent arrears that accrued during a period of award of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit housing costs
  • Rent deposits or rent in advance
  • Costs associated with moving to more suitable accommodation.

Housing Payments cannot cover:

  • Either HB or UC has been suspended.
  • If there are any sanctions and reductions in benefit entitlement.
  • There is a shortfall between benefit awarded and rent due resulting from:
    • support or service charges that are ineligible for housing benefit.
    • shortfalls caused by overpayment recovery.
  • Increases in rent for outstanding rent arrears.
  • Ineligible service charges
  • Household expenses such as gas, electricity, food and travel
  • Household goods such as furniture, carpets, fridges, cookers etc
  • Council Tax payments
  • Mortgage Costs
  • The Housing Payment budget for the financial year has been exceeded.

 

Further Information

 

You can find further details of our Housing Payments policy, procedures and how to apply here.

Further information on the Crisis and Resilience fund, which is replacing the former Household Support Fund, can be found on the Derbyshire County Council website here.

Full information regarding the fund can be found on the gov.uk website.

 

 

Need Further Help?

Contact our Customer Services Team on 01283 221 000 or email Crisis.Payments@southderbyshire.gov.uk