Social fund

A Community Care Grant is a non-repayable grant that is awarded by the discretionary Social Fund.

To receive a Community Care Grant, you must be claiming one of the following qualifying benefits:

• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Pension Credit (both the guarantee credit and the savings credit)

You may also apply if you're due to leave institutional or residential care within the next six weeks and you're likely to be on benefits when you leave. You must not be involved in a trade dispute (for example, a strike), although in this situation you may still be entitled to claim help with travel costs to visit someone who is ill.

You can claim a Community Care Grant for:

• costs that arise when you're establishing yourself in the community after a stay in institutional or residential accommodation in which you received care (such as a hospital, residential care home or a high-support hostel)
• something that will help you or a member of your family (or someone for whom you will be providing care) to stay in the community, rather than going into institutional or residential accommodation
• something that will “ease exceptional pressure” on you or your family. This could apply in many situations. It doesn't apply only to the members of your family for whom you claim benefit. A brother or sister, for instance, could count as family. The pressure has to be exceptional, but what that means depends on your circumstances. It may apply if you've had to leave your home because of, for example, domestic violence, or if you or a member of your family is seriously ill or disabled
• costs that will allow you (or your partner) to care for a prisoner or a young offender who is on temporary release or temporary licence
• something that will help you set up home as part of a planned resettlement programme after a time during which you have not had “a settled way of life”. If you're claiming in this way, it would be best to have the help of whoever is running the resettlement programme, and to have a written plan that you can show the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
• travel (and reasonable overnight accommodation) expenses to help you visit someone who is ill or in prison, ease a domestic crisis, attend a relative’s funeral or move to suitable accommodation

What to claim

There's no fixed list of things that you can claim, but you cannot claim for certain items (see Discretionary loans and grants for a list of excluded items). What you can claim for depends on your circumstances. The DWP will consider the nature, extent and urgency of your need. You may not be offered payment if the DWP doesn't consider your needs to have sufficiently high priority.

Your Community Care Grant claim must be for at least £30, unless it's for travel expenses. There is no maximum payment, but payment will reflect the urgency and priority of your needs.

Capital

Your Community Care Grant could be affected by your capital (for example, savings). It will be reduced if you have more than £500 if you're under 60 or more than £1,000 if you're over 60.

If you disagree with the DWP's decision, you don't have a right of appeal, but there is a system of review. Seek a review within 28 days of receiving a decision on your claim. For more information, see the section on Challenging a decision in Discretionary Social Fund.

The official online source of government information on benefits is Directgov.