Background
The Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) provides a total of £10.8m of Government funding from DWP to Gateshead Council for 3 years from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2029 (£3.6m per annum). This funding is ringfenced to be spent in accordance with the annual CRF grant determination.
The Gateshead Council CRF delivery plan for 2026 to 2027 was submitted to DWP on 1 July 2026 and sets out the approach for use of the fund and allocation of funding to achieve progress in the expected outcomes for the following CRF components:
Crisis Payments
Housing Support Payment
Resilience Services
Community Coordination
Changes from Household Support Fund
The CRF replaces the Household Support Fund (HSF) which ran for several years and had a clear focus on preventing people from being cold or going hungry. The criteria and focus on how the funding is used has separate and different guidance from that of the previous seven Household Support Schemes.
The CRF has been made available to local authorities to support low-income households who encounter a financial shock, are struggling with housing costs and to support activities that build individual and community financial resilience over the longer term through a coordinated local support landscape of resilience services.
CRF will be provided to local authorities for 3 years until March 2029, which provides an opportunity to take a more strategic approach to the delivery plan over 3 years and provides greater financial certainty to funded services and external partners, especially when we are funding or part-funding salaried posts.
The CRF guidance signals a clear shift in emphasis from a focus on crisis support and the proactive distribution of financial support to low-income households under HSF, to an increased focus and investment in resilience services and community coordination of the local support landscape.
Unlike Household Support Fund, CRF funding cannot be used to provide blanket financial assistance to low-income groups such as pensioners and Free School Meal families. Under HSF, approximately £1.6M per year was used to provide food vouchers for FSM families during school holidays. This provision ceased following the Easter 2026 school holiday.
Under CRF, any residents, households and families in need of crisis support must apply for crisis payments and, for most cases, payments must be made available on a cash-first basis, rather than vouchers.
Funding for emergency food provision (a substantial element of Household Support Fund) is no longer eligible. Community food support (for example, access to low-cost food via community shops or pantries, alongside financial resilience support) is eligible.
Discretionary Housing Payments now CRF Housing Payments
Prior to the Crisis and Resilience Fund, Discretionary Housing Payment was previously a separate stream of funding to local authorities to support residents experiencing a short-term issue with meeting their housing costs.
From April 2026, Discretionary Housing Payment funding was brought into the Crisis and Resilience Fund funding envelope (£1.1m of the overall £10.8m CRF allocation). This is specified funding for housing support and to support residents where:
Housing Benefit or Universal Credit does not cover the full amount of their rent
orif they were getting help towards their housing costs through Universal Credit and they've moved partway through their assessment period into:
temporary accommodation provided by the council because they are homeless
supported accommodation where they receive care, support and supervision provided by or on behalf of their landlord
a refuge
a council hostel
a new address and continue to have a rent liability on their old address
If residents receive Universal Credit they must provide proof of their rent. For example, a tenancy agreement or a signed letter from their landlord.
Further details, criteria and application for Housing Support.
Except for the Housing Payment allocation outlined above, there is no recommended percentage for how funds should be distributed among components. The allocation between strands is expected to vary between authorities based on local needs to achieve CRF outcomes. However, the guidance states that, given the focus of the fund is improving individual and local financial resilience, authorities are expected to focus a significant part of their funding to address this.
The CRF will become one part of the overall support provided by the council to those residents in financial need, such as Council Tax Support, processing of Free School Meal applications, and provision of the Holiday Activities and Food Programme.
Summary of the guidance
The council must follow the DWP guidance and have a clear rationale and documented framework outlining the approach. GOV.UK Guidance - Crisis and Resilience Fund (1 April 2026 to 31 March 2029)
The fund will focus on three main outcomes:
Outcome 1: Provision of effective crisis support
Delivering effective crisis support is intended to prevent the occurrence or escalation of individuals' crises. By offering timely, needs-based assistance to those with low incomes facing financial shocks, authorities can reduce the risk of crisis need. This includes the provision of financial support towards housing needs to those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs.
Outcome 2: Improving individuals' financial resilience
By strengthening financial resilience among individuals, authorities empower citizens to better manage financial shocks and mitigate the occurrence, recurrence and escalation of crises.
Outcome 3: Bolstering the local-level support landscape
A joined-up, visible local support network is key to the CRF's approach to building financial resilience. This includes strengthening resilience networks within local communities, that in turn boost the financial resilience of individuals within these communities. This coordination enables a suitable range of resilience services to exist within a local area and ensures there are clear referral pathways between them and crisis support.
The resilience services strand has 7 further required outcomes, and all resilience services spend and activity will be reported against these outcomes:
- reduced experiences of material deprivation
- reduced need for emergency food parcels
- increased access to appropriate and quality advice services
- increased savings
- reduction in debt, especially priority debt
- maximisation of individuals' incomes
- decreased need for Crisis Payments and Housing Payments
Overview of Gateshead Council's CRF Delivery Plan
The delivery plan has been developed via a working group of officers, in accordance with the guidance and the financial resilience outcomes required. It outlines the planned activity under each of the 4 areas. In summary:
Crisis payments
Crisis support will be made available via online or telephone assisted applications to provide timely, short-term support to residents experiencing an immediate financial crisis, where there is a risk to health, safety or independent living, and no other resources are available.
- online and telephone applications now open: Crisis and Resilience Fund - please refer people in for crisis support
- eligibility criteria: occasional or short-term financial support for people in crisis or experiencing a financial shock (more detailed criteria on web page)
- open all year, application processing target within 48 hours of receipt of application and all required evidence
- cash-first approach in most cases, some vouchers (where requested and appropriate), plus purchase of white goods
- warm referral into key financial resilience partners - Citizens Advice Gateshead (CAG), Age UK and Housing Advice and Support team (for council tenants)
Housing Payments
Housing payments will provide targeted housing-related financial support to residents experiencing short-term financial pressure that places their housing at risk because they are struggling to cover their housing costs in the short term (for example, if Housing Benefit or Universal Credit does not cover the full amount of their rent).
Housing payments will continue to be the primary mechanism for providing discretionary help with housing costs, including short-term assistance with rent shortfalls, and support to prevent homelessness.
Awards will remain discretionary, time-limited and targeted at households who are unable to meet their housing costs despite maximising income and entitlement.
Please refer people requiring support with their housing costs to the CRF Housing Payments.
Resilience services
Resilience support will be delivered through a coordinated delivery framework of advice, financial resilience, and community-based and digital inclusion interventions. It will be delivered by a partnership of accredited advice organisations, council services and Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) organisations. Many activities contribute to more than one CRF resilience outcome.
Core cross-cutting interventions include:
- Accredited financial support and advice provision by Citizens Advice Gateshead, Age UK Gateshead and the council's Housing Advice and Support team.
- Grant funding at different tiers to support the development, capacity building and delivery of community-based financial resilience support activities, to enable local organisations to provide early support, help with CRF applications. Crisis, housing and financial resilience support, triaging and warm referrals into specialist support and assisted self-help activities.
- Specific grant funding for financial resilience and crisis support provision in the Jewish community.
- Advice First Aid training for community organisations, council services and partner organisations to support early help interventions, triaging, assisted self-help and triaging, and warm referrals into specialist support.
- Utilisation of benefits and income maximisation tools including Lightning Reach for residents to self-serve or through supported self-help provision.
- Two additional FCA-accredited Debt Advice posts will be funded and employed by Citizens Advice Gateshead. One role will be closely linked to council services to support residents with priority debts such as rent arrears, Council Tax, and Adult Social Care charges. The second will operate flexibly in community locations, including rural and harder-to-reach areas.
- Targeted brief intervention support for vulnerable households via Housing Support Floating Support team.
- Grant funding to VCFSE organisations for delivery of digital inclusion activities related to financial resilience.
- Partnership with NE First Credit Union to encourage saving behaviours and provide access to lower-cost credit.
- Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) enhancement pilot to provide specific family learning-led sessions relating to food, budgeting and financial resilience.
These activities will provide Gateshead residents with practical, tailored help if they are struggling to manage day-to-day finances. This support will focus on building financial resilience by helping people understand their income and expenditure, how to prioritise essential bills, access eligible benefits, and develop sustainable habits around saving and budgeting.
By offering this help early the goal is to:
- avoid problems escalating or to prevent them repeating in the future, reducing the need for emergency support
- improve overall wellbeing by increasing the opportunity for residents to make informed choices, and improve their financial awareness and confidence in managing money
Community coordination
Activity under this strand relates to the CRF outcomes of bolstering community-level support, increased referral of crisis-support applicants to appropriate services, and decreased crisis-support applications.
Activity planned under this area includes:
- development of an application, triage, and warm referral platform for all strands of CRF provision
- development of a money advice referral 'Worrying about Money' leaflet and online platform to raise awareness and enhance navigation of local and specialised support available (see Money Advice Referral Tool - Resolve Poverty as an example)
staff costs for Digital Inclusion Coordinator hosted by Connected Voice from January 2027
More information
Key contact emails
Crisis Payments: [email protected].
Housing Payments: [email protected]
Resilience Services and Community Coordination: [email protected]
