To qualify for a Housing Payment applicants must be entitled to either
- Housing Benefit, or
- Universal Credit that includes the housing costs element
and
- be able to demonstrate that they need additional financial support towards their housing costs.
Funded by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), The Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) has been made available to Local Authorities in England to provide crisis support to low-income households. It replaces the Household Support Fund and Discretionary Housing Payments which end on 31 March 2026.
The Housing Payment element of the CRF replaces Discretionary Housing Payments and can be awarded where an applicant requires further financial assistance with housing costs.
All awards are discretionary and are usually short term in nature, designed to support your tenancy while you look at making changes to your expenditure and income or look at suitable cheaper accommodation. Payments are made from limited funding, and awards are normally for a period of two to six months and cannot be relied upon to solve long term shortfalls in benefit.
To qualify for a Housing Payment applicants must be entitled to either
and
You can only be considered for a Housing Payment if you are currently in receipt of Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit.
Please click the link below and fill out the application form with as much information as you can about your financial circumstances. You will need to select whether you are in receipt of Housing Benefit, Universal Credit or, in certain circumstances, Housing Benefit and Universal Credit.
At the question 'are you currently claiming….' , if you:
Don’t forget to include all your expenses. If you do not fill the form out correctly, this may delay a decision on your application, and you may be asked to complete another one.
You must provide a current rent statement and full bank statements for all accounts including savings accounts you/your partner hold in PDF format that shows your name, sort-code, address, account number and all your transactions for the last month. It should also show your household income coming in and the bills that are paid out. You can upload during the application process, or you can provide it after you have submitted your application, quoting your Housing Payment reference number to hp@basingstoke.gov.uk
This form is compatible with a mobile and tablet devices. Should you have any problems in accessing the form, or you require help to complete an application, please contact the Benefits Team on 01256 844844.
If you have already started your application and saved it to complete later, you must make a note of the application reference and password, you can then access it again by:
Please note that if you have reached the section asking for your email and contact details, you will receive notification of your reference and password by email. Please follow the same access instructions as above.
Recipients must notify the Authority of any changes which may be relevant to the Housing Payment application or award. Such changes include:
If you are not eligible for a Housing Payment, you may still be able to apply for financial support from the CRF. For more information about CRF including Crisis Payments – visit the connect 4 communities webpage.
The Government announced funding to support vulnerable low-income households who are facing immediate financial difficulties due to increased heating oil prices, visit Heating oil support webpage for more information.
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