Emergency fund for families struggling on Universal Credit slashed by £11million in three years
HARD-UP families on Universal Credit have had an emergency fund slashed by £11million in three years.
The Flexible Support Fund (FSF) is used to pay grants to help those on the new benefits system get back into work.
The grants are issued on top of other benefits and can be used to cover the costs of things like childcare, uniforms or work tools as long as they help you get a job.
But figures obtained by a freedom of information request from The Sun show that the fund has shrunk by £11million in just three years.
In 2016/17 the FSF budget was set at £51.7million but by 2018/19 the amount had been cut to £40.7million.
Universal Credit is already designed to get people back into work but a string of serious problems with the system has actually left millions of people worse off.
That's why The Sun has launched the Make Universal Credit Work campaign, calling for a number of changes that will benefit hard-up claimants.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which decides how much to set aside for the fund, says the amount in the fund varies due to changing policies and levels of demand.
It is also subject to how much money the DWP has been allocated in total that year.
Cash has also been left in the pot of money every year for the past three years.
In 2016/17 and 2017/18, £700,000 was left unspent annually, and in 2018/19 around £100,000 was left over from the fund.
Even so, Liam Evans, campaigns officer at Turn2us, still believes that the fund isn't "adequate" enough to fulfil its purpose.
What is the Flexible Support Fund?
THE Flexible Support Fund (FSF) is money that you can get on top of your benefits and is managed by local job centres.
It was introduced in 2011 and replaced schemes like the Deprived Areas Fund, the Adviser Discretion Fund and the Travel to Interview Scheme.
The money can be used to cover the costs of:
- Training for a job, up to £150,
- Travel to interviews,
- Childcare,
- Tools for work,
- Cost of medical evidence required by a disabled person,
- Clothing and uniforms to start work,
- Support for single parents in financial emergencies in the first 26 weeks of starting a job.
There's no set maximum amount that can be awarded and it will vary from case to case.
But unlike an Advance Payment, the money you receive is a grant rather than a loan, so you will not have to pay it back.
Once you've received the cash, you'll have 14 days to provide the job centre with receipts for any goods and services that you paid for using the grant.
You can receive the fund more than once, but the second application will be subjected to more rigorous checks to prove that the money really will help you get a job.
The fund is available to anyone who receives help from the job centre, from the moment that you start a claim.
If you feel that you may be able to get help from the FSF, then you should contact your local job centre.
Unfortunately, claimants don't have an automatic right to receive the help as it's up to the discretion of the adviser.
He added: "If the DWP truly want to encourage people into work then mechanisms such as the FSF need to be properly funded, well advertised and easily accessible otherwise we’ll continue to see a rise in poverty."
The FSF has been around for nine years now but the not much is known about it.
This is partly down to the fact that it's only supposed to be issued if all other help has been exhausted and partly because you're not automatically entitled to the cash.
The fund is handed out to struggling households by work coaches at the Jobcentres on a case by case basis.
There's no maximum amount that can be awarded but unlike advance payments or budgeting loans, the money doesn't have to be paid back.
Make Universal Credit Work
The DWP has declined to tell The Sun how much money has been set aside for the FSF for the year 2019/20 because the figures are subject to an audit in the future.
A DWP spokesperson said: "The Flexible Support Fund is a discretionary payment used to provide local support that claimants may need and the budget rose by more than £3million last year.
"There have been record levels of employment as well as record low unemployment figures and the budget reflects these trends."