Written by Beccy Wardle, Director of Client Partnerships
The Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) is heading towards launch in April – just two months from now. At Auriga Services, the conversations I’ve been having with councils around the country show a mixed picture of readiness to deliver under this new policy directive. Whilst a few areas are poised and ready for change, others express concerns. Not necessarily concerns related to the principles underpinning these changes; a shift from crisis to prevention is widely welcomed as the right move. Rather a sense of increasing complexity, real terms depleting funds, and a very short timeframe to gear up and go live.
Local authorities are managing multiple support programmes, each with their own specific criteria and funding parameters and underpinned by different policy directives coming from various government departments. The launch of CRF will require joined up local networks of support, enabling quick and effective crisis support when it is needed. All of this needs to be underpinned by a longer-term approach that builds resilience and reduces cycles of escalating crises. Building financial resilience requires a much broader approach than just focusing on crisis solutions.
Perhaps this is an opportunity to build on and integrate with existing place-based networks across housing, health and the voluntary sector? Underpinning local integrated community-based help with fast and effective financial crisis support when and where it’s needed.
The scale of readiness concerns
Since the fund was initially announced in June 2025, concerns have been raised by councils about their readiness for launch in April 2026. Only 15% of councils feel fully prepared for this launch. The key factors driving readiness concerns are the need to set up new operational delivery and processes, aligning teams, establishing fund eligibility criteria and ensuring a positive support journey, as well as reporting on the fund’s impact.
According to the Resolution Foundation, British families are £20K worse off than they were 20 years ago, and with the backdrop of a housing and cost of living crisis, more households need support than ever before. Creating financial resilience in an increasingly volatile and unpredictable world is enormously challenging. Providing a wide range of support will help, including income maximisation, budget maximisation, income smoothing, and services to increase and improve financial capabilities. This requires a more complex and detailed understanding of an individual’s holistic needs than simply providing a one-off crisis support payment. These types of support services require a greater level of engagement and ongoing support for the individual and ultimately require greater resources.
Changing how support is delivered
The previous Household Support Fund (HSF) focused on crisis support, often through voucher based support or goods in-kind, whether this was required for food, clothing, fuel, or household goods. The Crisis and Resilience Fund prioritises a cash-first approach; empowering and enabling individuals to make choices to best meet their own needs, with dignity. Whilst some places have already been working with cash funds, this is a new way of working for others; requiring new infrastructure that enables the tracking of outcomes and impact and connects into follow-up services to support long term financial resilience.
Launching CRF before that infrastructure is in place risks beneficiaries receiving incomplete or misaligned support. For example, a household may receive crisis support but not receive follow-up services that support resilience, affecting the longer-term impact and the fundamental principles of the model. Councils have also raised concerns about the total value of the fund against the wide ranging need it is expected to support.
Only 2% of councils believe the £842 million allocation will be sufficient to meet welfare needs. Although two-thirds favour the new structure, it seems that there may be a gap between the delivery model and the anticipated resource required. The strong emphasis on a cash-first approach for crisis support, has surfaced some concern around the suitability of existing fraud prevention controls. Whilst not unsurmountable, the infrastructure and governance will need to be suitably robust, whilst ensuring this does not hinder the principle of getting cash to people in financial crisis quickly and easily. Crucially, the teams connecting with people in need of support will need to quickly develop an in-depth understanding of their circumstances. Even more reason to ensure support is responsive, holistic, embedded within communities and that the CRF infrastructure and model as a whole is place-based, integrated and co-designed.
Delivery pressures for councils
It is clear that there is a readiness gap in many places across the country. The complexity of integrating multiple funding streams is real, and the pace and scale at which this needs to be delivered is challenging. Rising needs for support within households is adding to the pressure, as these cannot be solved with crisis support alone. The need is great and the time is now.
The difference between a support system that is ready or not can make a huge impact on whether a person receives the support that they need and are entitled to. There is clear potential for positive impact from these changes. Joined up community support for increased financial resilience linked to smooth, quick and easy support to cope with and manage financial shocks and crises is a fantastic aspiration. It just is not yet clear how many local authorities will be ready to hit the ground running by April.
