Crisis and Resilience Fund
From 1 April, the UK Government is introducing new multi-year fund for councils to help people who need emergency financial support.
The fund will be focused on supporting people on low incomes who face sudden financial difficulty. The aim of the fund is to help people and communities become more financially resilient.
We are in the process of developing our local eligibility criteria. More information about this will be available over the coming weeks.
There are four components to the Crisis and Resilience Fund:
- crisis payments - via an application process, with wraparound support
- housing payments - which will replace the Discretionary Housing Payments
- resilience services - to help individuals and communities to build financial resilience, beyond the funding period
- community coordination - to build stronger communities that support each other and bring voluntary sector community enterprises together to support individuals
For further information on where to find support, visit the government's cost of living webpages, or our public health pages.
Please be aware that people who were previously eligible for the Household Support Fund (HSF) will not automatically be eligible for the Crisis and Resilience Fund.
Oil heating
On 16 March 2026, the government confirmed that West Berkshire Council has been allocated additional funding through the Crisis and Resilience Fund to provide targeted support for households that rely on oil heating.
"Oil has seen a significant spike in cost recently due to global events, households that heat their homes with oil are not protected by the national energy price cap, meaning they can be more quickly affected by rising energy prices". The UK government initiated additional support for those affected by this specific issue.
We are currently working through the arrangements for delivering this additional support to eligible households. Further details, including how residents will be able to access the funding, will be confirmed and published on this page as soon as the process is finalised.
If you would like to speak to someone further, please contact CRF@westberks.gov.uk or 01635 503 944.
