Summary
The report ‘The Community Care Grant: Department for Work and Pensions’ (HC 286) concludes that there is not enough clarity as to whether money from the Community Care Grant scheme is being claimed by people who need it most.
The Community Care Grant, supported by £141 million worth of funding aims to help vulnerable people and their families to establish themselves and remain in their community.
Whilst Jobcentre Plus employees prioritise each claim request received, they cannot be sure that those who apply were in most need.
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. However, 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.
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