Employment and Support Allowance

(asked on 28th March 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work of 27 March 2017, Official Report, column 9, what hardship funds are available to support claimants of employment support allowance in the work-related activity group.


Answered by
Penny Mordaunt Portrait
Penny Mordaunt
Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
This question was answered on 18th April 2017

The Social Fund is a mechanism which helps claimants of income-related support with certain one-off or occasional expenses

Through this Fund, eligible claimants can access Budgeting Loans to cover unexpected hardships. These are interest-free loans which are repayable from benefit awards. They are designed to help people, who have been in receipt of a qualifying benefit for at least six months, with intermittent expenses that are considered difficult to budget for such as furniture, clothes and shoes, rent advances, and travel expenses. Also part of the Social Fund is the Cold Weather Payments scheme. This provides help to people in meeting their additional heating costs during periods of extreme cold who are in receipt of certain income related benefits and satisfy other conditions.

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