Benefits added to the list of Public Funds

Dear all,

There have been several amendments made to the list of public funds in paragraph 6 of the Immigration Rules. Please note the below information received from the Home Office:

“Three parts to the amendments:

1) Inclusion of eight benefits administered by Social Security Scotland. It is important that these benefits are reflected in the list of public funds to ensure a consistent approach for equivalent benefits across all parts of the UK. These benefits are either equivalent to DWP administered benefits, which are already included in the list of public funds or are already not available to those with NRPF, so their inclusion does not further restrict access to benefits for those with NRPF;

• Child Disability Payment
• Adult Disability Payment
• Carer’s Allowance Supplement
• Scottish Child Payment
• Funeral Support Payment
• Job Start Payment
• Child Winter Heating Assistance
• Winter Heating Payment

2) Rewording of five DWP administered benefits. The current list of public funds includes the DWP administered ‘Social Fund’, but in practice, the ‘Social Fund’ actually includes five separate benefits. To provide greater clarity as to which benefits are classified as ‘public funds’ for immigration purposes, we have replaced the words ‘Social Fund’ with the full names of the benefits.
The amended wording is:
• A Social Fund maternity expenses payment made under section 138(1)(a) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992
• A Social Fund funeral expenses payment made under section 138(1)(a) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992
• A Social Fund cold weather payment made under section 138(2) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992
• A Social Fund winter fuel payment made under section 138(2) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992.
• A Social Fund budgeting loan payment made under section 138(1) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992.
We have also reflected in the list that these payments are made under equivalent legislation in Northern Ireland.

3) Removal of the ‘Council Tax Benefit’ as this benefit was abolished in 2013/14.

These amendments formed part of a statement of changes to the Immigration Rules which were laid in Parliament on 7th September and will come into force on 5th October.”

Jim