Purpose

The proposed arrangement:

•                  provides an established mechanism for distributing the CRF to residents;

•                  makes use of CAB’s existing expertise, infrastructure and experience in administering similar schemes;

•                  provides residents with access to budgeting and financial resilience support alongside the immediate financial assistance;

•                  avoids the Council having to establish additional administrative arrangements for a relatively small funding stream; and

•                  allows funding to be transferred incrementally, reducing the amount of Council funding held by CAB at any one time.

Decision

To approve the use of Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) as the delivery partner for the administration and disbursement of the Council’s Crisis & Resilience Fund (CRF) to eligible residents/taxpayers within the Borough.

An initial payment of £10,000 will be made to CAB from the Council’s CRF allocation. Further payments will be made to CAB as required, based on the level of funding disbursed, until the available CRF funding is fully utilised.

The expenditure and use of the fund will be closely monitored by the Council’s Revenues and Benefits Client Team, with oversight provided by the Revenues and Benefits Manager.