DHPs in England incorporated into the Crisis and Resilience Fund

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) in England were incorporated into the Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) from April 2026, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed. The DHP scheme continues to be delivered by Welsh local authorities¹.

DHPs are monetary awards that can be made by local authorities to those entitled to Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit who require further financial assistance meeting their housing costs¹. Local authorities provide details of their use of DHP funds to the DWP twice a year, published for the first six months of the financial year and then for the whole financial year¹.

The DWP ran a consultation survey between 18 December 2025 and 15 February 2026 on whether to continue publishing DHP statistics relating to the 22 local authorities which will continue to deliver DHPs in Wales, or whether to cease the series in its entirety¹.

Future publications will retain all existing financial and monitoring information, but the DWP says it is reviewing whether all tables and charts in the existing publication will be relevant to a Wales-only series. Regional breakdown tables and charts will no longer be included¹. A new publication series concerning Crisis and Resilience Fund Management Information, including information related to Housing Payment expenditure in England, is being considered¹.

The latest release, covering the financial year 2025 to 2026, was published on 9 July 2026¹.

Why it matters for households

For people in England who need extra help with rent beyond their Housing Benefit or Universal Credit housing element, the route to that support changed from April 2026, when DHPs were incorporated into the Crisis and Resilience Fund¹. The DWP has not reported in this collection how households apply for help under the CRF, or how awards are assessed, so those details have not been reported here.

In Wales, the Discretionary Housing Payments scheme continues to be delivered by local authorities, and the 22 Welsh authorities that deliver DHPs remain the subject of the published statistics¹. The change to a Wales-only series means the published data will no longer include regional breakdown tables and charts¹.

What happens next

The DWP says a new publication series concerning Crisis and Resilience Fund Management Information, including information related to Housing Payment expenditure in England, is being considered¹. No date has been given for that series. The DWP is also reviewing whether all tables and charts in the existing DHP publication will be relevant to a Wales-only series¹.