info on local social fund replacement schemes

Cheshire West and Chester scheme details here:
http://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/residents/benefits_and_grants/help.aspx

Blackpool’s scheme (no cash payments, no face-to-face applications, only one application of each type in a 12 month period…) is here:

http://www.blackpool.gov.uk/Services/A-F/DiscretionarySupportScheme/Home.htm

And information on Lancashire’s here:

http://www3.lancashire.gov.uk/corporate/atoz/a_to_z/service.asp?u_id=3807&tab=1

St Giles Trust runs a substantial private rented access programme in which many of our clients, principally ex-offenders, claim Crisis Loans for rent in advance. I have therefore spent time seeking out London boroughs’ replacement schemes.  Here’s a selection:

http://www.bexley.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=15818
http://www.brent.gov.uk/services-for-residents/benefits-and-financial-support/benefit-cuts/local-welfare-assistance/
http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/content/community-and-living/welfare-and-benefits/local-social-fund-LSF.en
http://www.croydon.gov.uk/advice/benefits/welfare-benefits/CDS
http://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/info/200008/benefits/1332/welfare_reform/5
http://www.hounslow.gov.uk/discretionary_local_crisis_payments_policy.pdf
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/Services/AdviceBenefits/Benefits/CurrentBenefitsAvailableToYou/LambethEmergencySupportScheme.htm
http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/benefit-changes/local-support-scheme/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.richmond.gov.uk/home/housing/housing_benefits/local_assistance_scheme.htm
http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200459/benefits_are_changing/3012/emergency_support/1
http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=20393

Whilst on the subject, I wonder if anyone has thoughts on whether eligibility criteria for these schemes that exclude people based on their immigration status are lawful?  The lists of eligibility criteria in the schemes and draft schemes I’ve been looking at all include a criterion relating to immigration status.  Some I’ve checked use the following wordings:

Brent                                 must not be a person subject to immigration control.
Croydon                               classified as a ‘person from abroad’ for benefit purposes
Lambeth                             must not be a person subject to immigration control
Redbridge                             must not be subject to immigration control
Richmond-upon-Thames               must not be subject to any immigration controls
Southwark                           persons subject to immigration control, persons from abroad [as defined in the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006] or those with no recourse to public funds
Sutton                                 must not be a person subject to immigration control

An exclusion from the DWP’s Social Fund will have been lawful because the whole scheme, and the exclusions, were set down in statute.  However, as far as I can see, that is not the case for these localised schemes, and I can’t see how an authority will be able to interpret the above definitions when there is no statute to refer back to.

The other possibility that occurs to me is that local authorities will argue that they are making these grants and loans under powers contained in other statutes, for example, National Assistance Act 1948, but I can’t quite see how that would work either.

If a claimant was refused local authority assistance purely on the grounds that an officer thought they didn’t meet that authority’s immigration criterion, would they have grounds for a discrimination claim?

Oxfordshire website now updated with details of qualifying criteria (basically reproducing CLs (with grants) and CCGs but with simplified & more restrictive criteria):

http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/content/oxfordshire-support-fund

Waltham Forest http://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/Documents/Proposed_Waltham_Forest_Social_Fund_scheme_v2.pdf

A Mixture of inhouse and exteral provision, grants and loans using the Credit Union.
Again restrictions on what can be purchased, possibly food vouchers etc.

thanks to the brilliant Homeless Link who’ve passed us details of schemes across London collected together by Geoff Tory from St Giles Trust .... see attached ...

neilbateman - 02 April 2013 05:38 PM

Similarly prescribing that applications must be online or by phone raises potential challenges (as has happened under homelessness legislation see R v Camden BC ex p Gillan (1988) 21 HLR 114) as well as raising discrimination issues and I’m not sure they can force people to apply via third parties without the legislative authority to do so.

I’m certainly not a learned friend!, but the following thoughts occurred to me-

I was initially under the impression that a local authority did not have the power to ‘invent’ a scheme, or do anything,  without legislative authority, but then found that the ‘general power of compentence’ under the Localism Act may have changed that. : (Hansard, HC Public Bill Committee, 5th Sitting, col. 192 (February 1, 2011).) ‘In the past, local authorities could only do things that were permitted to them by legislation. We are now inverting that and saying, ‘You can do anything that isn’t forbidden by legislation.’’

I was intrigued by the suggestion that the council have not got the legislative authority to force people to apply via third parties : might this fall outside of of the powers conferred by the Localism Act?

The Sheffield Scheme of Grants and Loans:-

https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/in-your-area/benefit/benefit_changes/local-assistance-scheme.html

very useful resource from children’s society sets out links signposting to local schemes -

http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/news-views/our-blog/find-your-local-welfare-assistance-scheme

Welsh Government scheme guidance published today; the last day before my FOI deadline.  Yet to be put-up but it will be on the WG and Money Made Clear websites and they’ve sent me a copy.