We’ll look at your circumstances and decide whether your eligible. 

• you must be in receipt of Housing Benefit from The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham or receive the Housing Cost element as part of your Universal Credit award to apply for a CRF Housing Payment
• you must have been a resident of London Borough of Barking & Dagenham for 3 months before applying or placed in temporary accommodation outside of the borough by our homeless team
• any applicants who have capital held in their bank accounts that is a reasonable amount above regular monthly bill payments that does not relate to incoming and outgoing income and is therefore consistently held (surplus capital) will not be eligible for the scheme. Any applicant who is deemed to hold other capital assets such as cryptocurrency, stocks, shares or other property will also not be eligible for assistance through the scheme(s). Capital assets must be realised in full prior to any application

Circumstances we will consider are issues such as:

• if you’re in danger of eviction and homelessness
• you’re undergoing life changing circumstances that significantly affect your household
• you or a household member have significant health problems which could increase living costs your Housing Benefit of Universal Credit award has been reduced by the benefit cap

Things we will look at when we consider an application

• evidence must be uploaded and submitted with all applications including the last 2 month’s full bank statements for all accounts held by you and any resident partner as a minimum requirement, plus any other evidence as detailed in the application.
• your application is likely to be refused, if you reapply within 12 months of a refusal, unless there has been a significant change to your circumstances (not including refusals for failing to provide evidence)
• your application may be refused if your bank statements show that you hold capital over the threshold or show regular, excessive unessential expenditure that is significantly higher than a reasonable, basic needs cost and the level of spending cannot be reasonably justified by the household’s circumstance, irrespective of your income including gambling, holiday’s, spending or sending money abroad, subscriptions, luxury items, restaurants and takeaways or regular unexplained payments out of your account
• you should have taken steps to maximise incomes available to you via claiming Universal Credit, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Support and all other benefits or support to which you may be entitled before making an application
• all applications will be treated individually on their own merit under all relevant schemes. We will only consider your application against each CRF scheme that you apply for, however we may consider any applications made to look to assist with Discretionary Council Tax Relief even if not applied for
• your application for discretionary financial support can be treated as a claim for Council Tax Support or Free School Meals if there is eligibility and entitlement should you not already be in receipt of these benefits and confirm that you wish to claim them

Rent in advance, deposits and moving costs

A CRF Housing Payment may be awarded for rent in advance, a deposit and/or moving costs to support residents to move to more sustainable accommodation. This is to help prevent homelessness, but we will consider whether the new property is appropriate and affordable, therefore you must apply before you move.

Where this is the case, we will need to check if you:

• Are due to have a deposit or rent in advance in respect of your existing tenancy returned to you
• Have been refused assistance from the Council through a rent deposit guarantee scheme or similar

Current rent costs or rent arrears

A CRF Housing Payment may be awarded for current rent costs if you are struggling to meet your current rental liability and Housing Benefit or Universal Credit housing cost element does not cover your full rent costs (excluding ineligible service charges). Ongoing affordability will be considered before any CRF Housing Payment is awarded.

A CRF Housing Payment may be awarded towards rent arrears if you can provide evidence of how the arrears were built up and when, and you can show that you have been unable to meet your rent costs which has led to the arrears. Ongoing affordability will be considered before any CRF Housing Payment is awarded.

You will need to provide the following evidence if applying for a CRF Housing Payment, please gather this evidence before making an application to avoid delay, as you will be required to upload this evidence during the application process. If you fail to provide evidence needed in support of your application, your claim will be refused with no appeal rights.

For all CRF Housing Payment applications you must provide

• two months bank statements for all accounts that you (and any resident partner) hold, showing all transactions, covering the last two months (mini statements and phone screenshots are not acceptable). This includes any savings accounts for you (and your partner) and any you hold for your children

If applying for Rent in advance and/or rent deposit, you will also need to provide

• official evidence from a landlord/letting agent that they have agreed to let the property to you and evidence of the costs of the rent deposit, rent in advance and ongoing contractual rent costs before you move, so that affordability can be considered

If applying for help with moving costs, you will also need to provide

• two quotes from different removal companies are required. These must be official quotes (letterhead or digital document) from the removal company before you move, so that affordability can be considered

If applying for help with current rent costs or rent arrears, you will also need to provide

• if you are not a Council tenant, you will need to provide evidence of your current rent costs and proof of any rent arrears and/or eviction notice by uploading the evidence during the online application process. (Council tenants are not required to provide this evidence as it is held on our system for us to check)

The Council currently administers and operates the following discretionary financial support schemes, of which there is one online application form for all schemes:

• Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) Crisis Payments and Move in Packs
• Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) Housing Payment
• Discretionary Council Tax Relief Scheme (DCTR).

More than one scheme can be applied for, and we will only consider your application against each CRF scheme that you apply for, however we may consider any applications made to look to assist with Discretionary Council Tax Relief even if not applied for.

The online application can also be treated as a claim for Council Tax Support and Free School Meals, where there is eligibility and entitlement, unless you do not wish to receive these additional benefits. 

Apply for a CRF Housing Payment 

Help with the application

Our outreach visiting service can support making an application only if the following circumstances apply:

• the applicant is disabled and
• is unable to leave the home as a result of that disability and
• is unable to complete the claim as a result of that disability and
• no family member, friend or other suitable person is available to assist the applicant
• has any other legitimate barrier to the completion of an application requiring support 

If all of the above apply, then please email visitingandwelfareemails@lbbd.gov.uk with your contact details and details of which scheme that you wish to apply for and the reasons for applying.

You must give authority to act to anyone applying for discretionary financial support on your behalf.

We will work to support the residents across a broad range of services. 

This will include referrals of applicants to services such as:

• B&D Works for employment support
• Budgeting and Debt advice
• Adult Learning
• voluntary sector organisations
• any other relevant service as applicable for further advice and ongoing support

Level of payment

We usually only make one award every 12 months, and this could be either a one-off payment or an ongoing award as deemed appropriate. The award can be issued by phone text payment (ATM withdrawal link), direct payment to council tax/rent accounts or landlords and in exceptional circumstances only a BACS payment into your nominated bank account.

The level of payment will be decided by the Council. 

Right to appeal

The schemes are discretionary, and the applicant does not have a statutory right to payment or appeal. However, if requested, we will review the decision unless:

• your application was submitted without the required evidence, 

or

• you have had a previous award within 12 months and do not declare it, or you have no extenuating circumstances

If your circumstances change, you can reapply. 

• there is no limit on how many times you can claim a CRF Housing Payment. However, if you reapply without a change to your circumstances or without extenuating circumstances, then your application may be refused.

The personal information we collect from you will be shared with fraud prevention agencies, who will use it to prevent fraud and money laundering and to verify your identity. 

If fraud is detected, you could be refused certain services, finance, or employment. 

Further details of how your information will be used by us and these fraud prevention agencies, and your data protection rights, can be found on the Cifas website.