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Harlow: Household Support Fund & Crisis and Resilience Fund

What Harlow’s local crisis scheme covers, how to apply, and whether it was open when we checked.

Written by the benefitmoney.co.uk editorial team · Last reviewed 14 September 2026

Harlow Council runs its local crisis help as the Crisis and Resilience Fund. It is a grant — not a loan: help with essentials, nothing to repay. This is a summary; Harlow’s own page (linked below) is the authority and the current position.

What Harlow’s scheme covers

What you get: Crisis payments can help with energy/water bills, food, essential household items; housing payments cover rent shortfalls, deposits, removals, rent in advance
Who qualifies: Must be receiving Housing Benefit or UC housing element for housing payments
How often: Housing payments are generally short-term awards
How to apply: Self-serve online portal for housing payments; external Southend application for crisis payments
You will need: Two months' bank statements, proof of debts, up-to-date rent statement, supporting medical evidence
Government allocation: £197,225 for 2026-27

Harlow Council is one of 12 district councils in Essex. In a two-tier area the county council runs crisis payments and the district runs the housing side of the fund — rent shortfalls, a deposit, rent in advance. Essex County Council was allocated £16,866,968 for 2026-27; Harlow Council was allocated £197,225 of its own. If what you need is help with food or energy rather than rent, start with the Essex scheme.

What Harlow itself says

What you get. “energy and water bills, food, essential household items”
Who qualifies. “You must also be receiving Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit”
How to apply. “Apply for a housing payment”
You will need. “your last 2 months bank statements for all accounts, showing all transactions”

Quoted from Harlow’s own page↗ and its application page↗, checked 14 September 2026. Nothing on this page is paraphrased into a rule the council has not published. The government allocation is from Annex A of the Crisis and Resilience Fund grant determination 2026 to 2027↗.

Apply on Harlow’s website

Applications are made on the council’s own site — this page collects nothing. If the link has moved, search the council site for “crisis and resilience”, then “household support”, then “welfare assistance”.

Open the Harlow scheme page

Source: Harlow Council — Crisis and Resilience Fund. Opened 10 September 2026.

Where this money comes from

Central government funds it; the council sets the rules. A payment does not affect your benefits. How the fund works nationally.

Other help you may qualify for

Credit union loans — the cheapest borrowing, capped at 3% a month.
DWP phone numbers — which line to call, and for what.
Borrowing while on benefits — what it costs and what it does to your award.
Crisis Loans — what replaced them, and where to apply now.

Not in Harlow?

See the other councils we have checked, or find yours via GOV.UK’s Get help with the cost of living from your local council↗.

Outside England the scheme has a different name: the Scottish Welfare Fund in Scotland, the Discretionary Assistance Fund in Wales, and Discretionary Support in Northern Ireland.

Recently checked elsewhere: Hart, North Warwickshire, Woking — see all 141.

Find your council by postcode

Not in Harlow? Enter a postcode and we will point you at the right council’s Crisis and Resilience Fund page.

We look the postcode up with the free postcodes.io service to find your local authority. Nothing you type is stored.

This page is independent. It is not run by Harlow Council, the Department for Work and Pensions or GOV.UK. Council schemes change without notice; the council’s own page is always the current position.