Social Fund

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The Social Fund is a Government Fund designed to help individuals and families living on low incomes with unexpected expenses which are difficult to meet out of weekly income. The Social Fund is divided into two parts, a regulatory and a non-regulatory part.

The regulatory Social Fund;

There is a legal right of entitlement to these payments providing the person satisfies certain conditions of entitlement contained in the regulations.

In November 2016 Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans were abolished in Northern Ireland and replaced by a new Finance Support scheme that includes:

Budgeting loans are still available.

 There is no legal right of entitlement to these payments and they are funded by a cash-limited budget.