Does any one have details of any guidance that deals with whether and if a young person (16+) leaving local authority care can make a claim for a DWP Community Care Grant and a local authority Care Leaving Grant?

I have looked on the internet for guidance but no luck and finding hard to find out how the interplay between these two grants.

The young people in question are moving from local authority residential or foster care provision, into semi-independent or independent placements, most often at age 18.

Thanks
Frank Corrigan
frank.corrigan@greenwich.gov.uk

Bit of a grey area this one, in Salford our young people get maximum of £1200 leaving care grant, if we used it all at once then we find as they get older and they move again, which invariably happens and may be working and have no access to benefits, so our policy is that we always claim CCG for everyone who is eligible,we have been asked by social fund what funds we have to provide for the young person, we take the stance that we have one sum of money to meet all a young persons needs from 16 to 21(which is true) so would only use leaving care grant to provide extras the CCG does not cover as we have to give them a reasonably standard of living. A long time ago I was advised that if there are any other source of funds for items, they do not have to pay out a CCG

Section 140(l)(c) of the Contributionns and Benefits Act states that “in determining whether to make an award to the applicant or the amount or value to be awarded a social fund officer shall have regard, subject to subsection (2) below, to all the circumstances of the case and, in particular— the possibility that some other person or body may wholly or partly meet it”.

SF guidance says that SFO’s should check with LA’s to see if they have statutory duties or discretionary powers to provide assistance. If there is a statutory duty then the CCG is likely to be refused. If there is a discretionary power only then all the individual circumstances need to be investigated further. Although how much investigating is actually done in cases is a moot point.