Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of support available through the Crisis and Resilience Fund to low and middle-income households experiencing fuel poverty due to increases in heating oil and liquified petroleum gas prices; and whether she plans to broaden the eligibility criteria for that support.

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 broad scope of DWP’s national CRF guidance, local authorities have discretion over scheme design and eligibility criteria. Crisis Payments can also be used to support energy costs for any form of fuel used for domestic heating, cooking, or lighting, including oil and liquified petroleum gas (LPG).

The Department has made no specific assessment of the adequacy of CRF support for low and middle-income households experiencing fuel poverty due to increases in heating oil and LPG prices. The Department is commissioning an independent national evaluation of the CRF, which will assess the delivery, impact, and value for money of the scheme as a whole.