RBWM keen to ‘avoid any gap in support’ over crisis fund reforms

Royal Borough councillors have said they are keen to ‘avoid any gap in support’ as they prepare for changes to Government funding for residents in need.

Councils across the UK have been receiving the Household Support Fund (HSF) since 2022 when the Government started the scheme to help residents with the rising cost of living.

The Royal Borough has received a total of £4,563,596 through the support fund. The money has been used to pay for school holiday vouchers for families receiving free school meals and one-off £150 payments to eligible residents.

Alongside 19 community partners and voluntary services, the council also helped residents by helping them with financial planning and directing them to debt advisors as well as food banks referrals.

But the Government has announced that the fund will stop from April 2026 and will instead be replaced with a new Crisis and Resilience Fund.

A council report said that this new scheme ‘may not permit’ one off payments to residents or free school meal vouchers.

At a York House cabinet meeting on Tuesday (October 21), councillors said they are ‘getting ahead of the curve’ to ensure the support to residents is not interrupted during the transition period between the two schemes.

Cabinet member for health and housing services, councillor Catherine Del Campo (Lib Dem, Furze Platt) said: “I’m really keen to avoid any gap in support to our most vulnerable residents.”

Councillor Richard Coe (Lib Dem, Riverside) agreed and was glad that the council was ‘ahead of the curve’ with this early planning before more information from the Government is published.

“It’s sort of a shame that we’re ahead of the Government on their own scheme.” Cllr Coe said.

“I hope the Government produce their side of [the scheme] at the earliest opportunity because poverty isn’t going anywhere soon.”

The Crisis and Resilience Fund will be allocated for a three-year period but no details about residents’ eligibility criteria have been announced.

No confirmation was given around how much the Royal Borough will receive yet, but £1 billion will be put into the new scheme annually and £842million of this will be allocated to local authorities across England.

Through the current Household Support Fund, the council has sent over 6,500 payments to residents and it continued to offer vouchers to families in need for the Easter holidays and the summer period of 2025.

The financial help will continue for the Christmas period as well as February 2026, but the activity of the fund will end in March 2026.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRs) a spokesperson from the Government’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said more guidance for local authorities will be published in January 2026.

A DWP spokesperson said: “[The guidance] will set out provisional allocations before the scheme goes live in April 2026.

“We’re committed to preventing households from falling into crisis through the Crisis and Resilience Fund and are working closely with local authorities on its detailed design.”