Nearly 80 crisis grant payments have been given out since April to West Devon residents experiencing financial shock.

West Devon Borough Council received just over £300,000 this year from a £8.4 million funding pot for the county with two thirds to be spent on providing quick payments to people in immediate crisis and the other third to help people build financial resilience.

The Crisis and Resilience Fund has superseded the Household Support Fund which was set up in response to the cost of living crisis.

Residents experiencing acute financial hardship have to apply for grants and under new government rules have to be paid within 48 hours of a receipt of a completed application.

A meeting of West Devon’s hub committee on Tuesday (June 9) heard that 78 completed payments had been made, many to low income families dealing with surging heating oil costs.

As part of the resilience element councillors have decided to spend £20,000 each on a case worker for two days a week over 12 months specialising in welfare benefits and debt advice from Homemaker Southwest and coordinated support from West Devon CVS (Community and Voluntary Services).

The intention of the fund is to help people better deal with financial difficulties in the long term, thus reducing crisis need.

Homemaker Southwest was previously given a grant of £5,000 and achieved financial and charitable gains for residents of £20,600 over a six month period.

The council said this figure might have been higher had it not been for the failure of residents to engage following a referral, with only 52 per cent of residents engaging with the service.

A Crisis and Resilience Fund payment may have a requirement attached, for the resident to demonstrate engagement with wider support services, which should see this figure increase, a report to the council said.

The council will also set up a small finance advice and support team in-house to work across both West Devon Borough and South Hams District Councils.

Members were told that this team would help the revenue and benefits department deal with the level of applications being submitted to the authority as doing the work on top of other duties was “quite a challenge”.

The meeting heard applications were “a daily occurrence”.

Some £10,000 will be ring-fenced for the provision of slow cookers, electric blankets, warm clothing and other consumables.

Members welcomed the “holistic” approach rather than purely handing our grants and council leader Mandy Ewings (Ind, Tavistock South West) said she would be happy if, nothing else, the council could help care leavers to manage their money, something which would stay with them through their lives.