Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment has been made of the number of households there were eligible for support with the cost of heating oil through the Crisis and Resilience Fund, but did not apply for it.

The Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF), including the additional £27 million of heating oil support, is delivered by local authorities in England. As with the wider CRF heating oil support is targeted at low-income households. Within this and the scope of the department’s national CRF guidance, local authorities have discretion over scheme design, including eligibility criteria and publicity of the available support.

The number of eligible households is at the discretion of local authorities. Therefore, the department has not made an assessment of the number of households that were eligible for support with the cost of heating oil through the CRF but did not apply for it.