The Social Fund

In England and Wales, the Welfare Reform Act 2012 abolished certain elements of the discretionary Social Fund from April 2013:

Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans: Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans for general living expenses (including rent in advance) were abolished from April 2013 and replaced with locally based provision administered by local authorities in England and the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales.

Crisis Loan Alignment Payments: From April 2013, Crisis Loan Alignment Payments and other Crisis Loans paid due to issues with benefit were replaced by a new national scheme of Short Term Advances administered by the DWP.

Budgeting Loans

Budgeting Loans continue to be available until Universal Credit is fully rolled out. As people migrate across to Universal Credit they will have access to a new system of Budgeting Advances that will replace Budgeting Loans for Universal Credit recipients.

However, the £172 million Local Welfare Provision Grant, which provides councils with funding to provide crisis loans and community care grants will be scrapped from 2015-16. Funding will be provided on a non-ring fenced basis to 2015 but, from April 2015, any support will have to come from within local authorities’ general funds.