Haringey Council has approved an interim policy for its Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF), marking a significant investment in expanding support services and developing a new online portal to simplify benefit claims.
The decision, made at a Cabinet Member Signing meeting on Friday, July 10, 2026, allocates funding towards extending free school meal holiday vouchers, bolstering the Financial Support Team, and streamlining the application process for residents facing financial hardship.
A key development is the approval of £30,000 for the creation of a streamlined online application form. This new portal will integrate multiple crisis fund applications and a benefits calculator, allowing residents to apply for various forms of support through a single platform and receive immediate information on potential benefit entitlements. The council anticipates the anti-poverty strategy to be published by no later than Q4 of 2026/27, with the full CRF policy to be agreed by cabinet in the same quarter, suggesting the online portal is likely to launch within the 2026/27 financial year.
The meeting also saw the approval of an estimated £1,742,338 for the expansion of the Financial Support Team. This expansion aims to increase outreach and community-based support, with extended operating hours for the financial support helpline to improve accessibility. The team will be augmented by 14 new officers, including new Financial Support Advisor and Financial Support Officer roles, and an additional manager. The increased capacity will allow officers more time to work in the community, raising awareness of available support, building relationships with partners, and increasing engagement with residents before issues escalate into crisis, particularly for those who may not be digitally connected.
Furthermore, £200,432 has been allocated to increase the number of crisis fund decision-makers by two Benefits Officers for two years. This is intended to allow for more comprehensive assessments and associated support to be provided to residents, with the expectation that additional decision-makers will improve the timeliness of benefit assessments.
Councillor Jo Kuper, Cabinet Member for Tackling Inequality and Resident Services, noted the council's commitment to supporting residents experiencing financial hardship, highlighting that approximately 26% of people in Haringey live below the poverty line after housing costs, with child poverty particularly acute at around 39%.
The policy extends free school meal holiday vouchers until September 2026, at an estimated additional cost of £966,000. Following this, a more targeted approach to holiday payments for households experiencing financial hardship will be implemented. The council is reviewing arrangements for holiday support from the 2026/27 academic year onwards, with the intention of introducing a more targeted approach focused on households at risk of financial hardship while supporting longer-term financial resilience, differing from the current universal provision of vouchers.
An estimated £220,221 has been approved to fund a strategic community coordination role, which will support the design and delivery of the borough's approach to tackling poverty and strengthen collaboration among anti-poverty initiatives.
Administration costs for the scheme, including staff resources and the Low-Income Family Tracker (LIFT), have been allocated an estimated £206,357. The expanded Financial Support Team will use LIFT to provide proactive advice to residents and to develop and deliver a structured approach to proactively addressing gaps identified by the tool, including households with unclaimed benefits and income, shifting activity from reactive support toward planned, targeted income maximisation and prevention work.
The report noted that all costs are estimates and could vary. Delegated authority was granted to the Corporate Director for Environment and Resident Experience to manage the budget in accordance with the policy's principles and criteria. The policy will be updated to reflect these approved recommendations, with future updates informed by the ongoing development of an Anti-Poverty Strategy.
The success of the Crisis and Resilience Fund and the new policy will be measured using a range of outcome measures, including 'Volume of applications', 'Application routes', 'Time to decision', 'Repeat applications', 'Presenting crisis type', 'Crisis support linked to rent', 'Arrears', 'Repeat housing support', 'Reduced material deprivation', 'Reduced need for food parcels', 'Increased access to advice', 'Increased savings', 'Reduction in priority debt', 'Income maximisation', 'Reduced need for crisis support', 'Referral volumes', and 'Coordination between services'. Some of these metrics are currently tracked, while others will be tracked following the decision.
Further details on the decisions made can be found in the Public reports pack and the Decisions document.
