Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of broadening eligibility for the Crisis and Resilience Fund to support people with the cost of heating oil.

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. The government has been clear that it is not intended to be a universal offer for all households that use heating oil. We must balance the government’s priorities to help households with the cost of living and to protect the public finances. Within this and the broad scope of DWP’s national CRF guidance, local authorities have discretion over scheme design, including eligibility criteria.

As announced at the budget, the government will provide a £100 Household Energy Payment for households in council tax bands A to D. This will be paid into bank accounts where possible from January, giving up to 20 million households in England some breathing space from rising energy prices. The government is also providing £100 million for local authorities in England to provide additional support to households most acutely impacted by rising energy bills.