Welfare Rights - Community Care Grant

What are Community Care Grants?

Community Care Grants are one-off payments from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Who is entitled?

You can only be considered for a payment for one of the following circumstances:

1 To help you, or a member of your family or other person for whom you or a member of your family will be providing care, to re-establish yourselves in the community following a stay in institutional or residential care.

2 To help you, or a member of your family or other person for whom you or a member of your family will be providing care, to remain in the community rather than enter institutional or residential care.

3 To ease exceptional pressures on you and your family.

4 To allow you, or your partner, to care for a prisoner or young offender on temporary release.

5 To help you, or one or more members of your family, with travel expenses within the UK in certain circumstances.

6 Travelling Expenses to:

Visit an ill relative, partner or, in some cases a close friend.
Go to a relative's funeral
Ease domestic crisis
Fares when moving to a more suitable home
Go to court to be at child's custody hearing

Savings up to £500 are ignored if you are applying for a Community Care Grant/Budgeting Loan. The savings ignored are up to £1000 if you or your partner are aged 60 years or more.

These Social Fund payments are discretionary. Therefore, you may not receive a payment even if you come within the above categories. There is a limited budget, which the Social Fund section cannot overspend.

How do you apply?

To apply, you need to complete a SF300 Form, which is available from any Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Do not underestimate the cost of the things you need, use a catalogue like Argos or Index. You cannot apply for the same item within 26 weeks unless there has been a relevant change of circumstances.Social Fund Officers must consider the circumstances of each case.

This includes: -

• The urgency of the case
• If the need could be met in any other way
• How much money is left in the budget

Examples which may affect priority are: -

• Mental or physical disability
• Physical or social abuse or neglect
• Unstable family circumstances
• Illness and general frailty
• A long period of sleeping rough
• Behavioural problems, for example, due to drugs or alcohol abuse

Contact us

For details of how to contact us for information about the service, help with forms, home visit requests etc see Welfare Rights Service homepage. This is a free and confidential service.

or call the Local Benefits Agency on (01226) 777222

How you can help?

You should always apply for a Community Care Grant if you are eligible, rather than a Budgeting Loan or Crisis Loan, which have to be repaid from your benefit. You can apply for help with anything other than an excluded item.

When completing the SF300 application form, you should give full details of the item you need. Try to be as specific as possible (e.g. list each item of furniture or clothing you need, rather than just asking for 'furniture' or 'clothes') and include the actual cost or a reasonable estimate of the cost of each item. You cannot get a Community Care Grant for an excluded item.

Your application must establish that you need a Community Care Grant for one of the circumstances previously mentioned. You should, for example, explain how the payment you are requesting will help the relevant person to become established or remain in the community, or will help ease exceptional pressures on you or your family.

You should also show why your application should be given high priority, bearing in mind the Social Fund guidance on priorities and what constitutes a high priority application. You can obtain a copy of the local guidance from your local office and refer to it if appropriate. You could also submit supporting evidence, e.g. from a doctor or social worker.

 

Additional Notes

If you are dissatisfied with the amount you have been awarded, you should consider requesting a review.

 

Response Times/Next Steps

The service endeavours to answer the telephone within 5 rings.
Requests for a home visit are acknowledged within 6 working days.
Letters and electronic mail are acknowledged within 2 working days.
Messages left for officers are returned within 24 hours unless notified otherwise.