Crisis and Resilience Fund (Kent)

Description

Kent County Council's local Crisis and Resilience Fund, replacing the Household Support Fund and Discretionary Housing Payments which both ended nationally 31 March 2026, backed by a £60.5m three-year settlement (£19.2m in 2026/27, £19.2m in 2027/28, and £22.1m in 2028/29). Crisis support — covering food and energy crises, serious financial shocks such as redundancy, bereavement, domestic abuse, or fire/flood damage, plus budgeting and employment advice — is administered on the county council's behalf, while Housing Payments (for a shortfall between Housing Benefit/Universal Credit and actual rent) are administered individually by each Kent district and borough council.

Eligibility summary

• Available in: England.
• Open to individuals — not restricted to businesses.
• Relevant income bands: earning under the Personal Allowance.

Notes

Widened from five to all twelve Kent districts, completing this directory's Kent coverage, mirroring the same two-tier pattern already used for Hertfordshire and other county-wide crisis funds in this directory. RESOLVED (23 Aug 2026): a fresh fetch of Kent County Council's own page succeeded (previous 403 has cleared) and confirms the launch that had appeared to slip has now happened — the page no longer talks about a future launch date and instead describes 'We have launched an interim crisis support scheme. The full scheme, which may include a wider range of support, will be available soon,' listing live categories: support to pay for heating oil, crisis payment (redundancy/bereavement/domestic abuse/fire or flood), financial resilience (budgeting and employment advice), housing payment (via district councils), community coordination, and the Holiday Activities and Food Programme. Each district was checked individually in the prior pass for its own Housing Payment page rather than assumed uniform — Ashford's own scheme, Canterbury's own 'Apply for a Crisis and Resilience Fund payment' page, Dartford's own CRF Housing Payment policy, Dover's (administered jointly with Canterbury and Thanet District Council by a shared 'EK Services' back-office team), Folkestone & Hythe's own published CRF policy document, Gravesham's own published CRF policy document, Maidstone's own Discretionary Housing Payment Policy page (covering the transition to CRF Housing Payments), Sevenoaks' own dedicated CRF Housing Payments page, Swale's own confirmation it has 'already started using the CRF' for short-term housing payments, Thanet's own Housing Payments page confirming administration by the same EK Services team as Canterbury and Dover (PartnershipOne Ltd now delivers the underlying benefits service for all three), Tonbridge and Malling's own Discretionary Housing Payments page (not yet visibly CRF-rebranded at research time — re-verify), and Tunbridge Wells' own Discretionary Housing Payment Policy page (the council noted it was still finalising local delivery arrangements, with further detail due Autumn 2026).

Requirement

Kent resident facing a sudden financial crisis or a shortfall in housing costs; awards are discretionary and assessed case-by-case.

Other areas' version of this scheme

Crisis and Resilience Fund (Kent) is run locally — here's the same scheme in other areas.