Supporting residents in need

The Resident Support Scheme is Oxfordshire County Council’s local hardship fund. It provides emergency help with short-term living costs through vouchers for food and energy, white goods and furniture.

Since July 2023, we’ve delivered the service on the council’s behalf using their allocation from the government’s Household Support Fund. We ensure an accessible application process, decide eligibility in line with all relevant guidance, arrange fulfillment of goods or vouchers and manage all customer contact.

Paul Wilding is Oxfordshire’s Cost of Living Programme Manager:

“Unlike many councils, we hadn’t had our own Local Welfare Scheme in place, with an absence of crisis support for about 8 years. For the first 2 years of the Housing Support Fund we used the funding to make payments to whole groups of people, which wasn’t fair or transparent. But working with NEC enables us to complete the application process at scale. Their ability to deliver the scheme from end to end means we can stay focused on our residents.”

Accessible and flexible

Residents can apply online or by calling a local number, with all queries managed by our experienced team by phone or email. We also manage complaints and appeals, keeping detailed notes and a full audit trail so that decisions can be reviewed where required.

We keep the service flexible too, adjusting our processes quickly to match any changes in eligibility criteria or award values. We can also manage fluctuating volumes, as Paul explains:

“In the first six months of working with NEC, we saw a significant increase in applications. Now, it tends to be cyclical, with higher numbers in the post-Christmas period. NEC manages these peaks with ease, which means we don’t need to worry about being overwhelmed by applications when we promote the scheme to our residents.”

Clear communication

Through ongoing contact and monthly meetings, we work to keep the service aligned to council and resident needs. We share information on call answering times and application processing times along with the outcomes from any appeals or complaints. Right now, we’re also working on how changes to the wording on the application website might help to reduce the number of ineligible applications.

“We have a really good relationship with NEC,” says Paul, “and it means we can both focus on making improvements rather than tackling issues.”