Book Description

Under the £141 million Community Care Grant scheme, vulnerable people can claim for money to pay for essential household items. Whilst Jobcentre Plus employees prioritise each request received, they cannot be sure that those who apply were in most need. Inequities in the budgets set for district offices mean that some high priority claims have been refused because of the limited funds available locally. In addition, the large volume of claims that are never likely to receive funding have to be assessed under the same process, thereby adding considerably to the administrative burden. Decisions are essentially based on what has been stated on the application form, which makes it difficult to identify if claims are overstated and there are no checks on how the money is spent. Introducing a centralised contract to supply items directly could improve the control over the scheme and achieve economies of scale of at least £14 million a year. Also, greater standardisation of the amount awarded for items could save up to £7.5 million a year. The Department does not wholly agree with these conclusions. In the Department's view it is in the nature of a discretionary scheme that there will be variations in the way in which judgments will be exercised and to operate more rigidly would fail to meet the needs of those it is designed to assist. The Department notes that it is required to operate the scheme within a legal framework and under tight constraints of turnaround time and resource availability