Crisis and Resilience Fund

The Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) offers help to Hertfordshire residents facing financial hardship by providing grants and other support. The fund is provided by the UK government.

The government has announced a new Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) to support low-income households who have a financial shock and to prevent crisis in the future.

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

Hertfordshire 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 Hertfordshire 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 this information as further details are confirmed. Alternatively further information can be found on the Crisis and Resilience Fund - Hertfordhire County Council website.

Support available now

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) ended on 31 March 2026. From 1 April 2026, DHPs will be replaced by the Housing Payment strand of the Crisis Resilience Fund (CRF).

Apply for housing payments

Find out if you can get any extra help with your rent

If you get Housing Benefit or Universal Credit (which includes an element for housing costs) but need extra help with rent, you may be able to apply for a CRF - Housing Payment.

Housing Payments can be awarded in certain circumstances to:

  • temporarily help with housing costs
  • help those affected by a reduction to their benefit caused by the benefit cap or 'bedroom tax’
  • help claimants through difficult, temporary, personal events

It is also important to note that: 

  • we don't often meet the entire shortfall in your housing costs
  • payments are from a limited fund and if the fund is exhausted we may not be able to help
  • payments are usually awarded for short periods only
  • It cannot cover ineligible services such as meals or water rates
     

Housing Payments are only ever intended to be temporary and should not be relied on. It is expected that households will look to seek cheaper or smaller accommodation, take advice / seek support to manage finances and where appropriate reduce non 
priority spend.

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