Social Fund payments are administered by JobCentre Plus.  The Social Fund is a catch-all term for a number of different funds, each with their own criteria and application forms, providing discretionary lump sum payments in the form of grants or loans to people already claiming different types of benefits.

The Social Fund can be applied to for:

• leaving institutional care or a care home, need help to stay in your own home, are part of a family under exceptional pressure, are caring for a prisoner or young offender on release / licence, are setting up a home as part of a planned resettlement programme or incurring travel costs for certain specified reasons (via Community Care Grants)
• things for your home or other things that you cannot pay for in a lump sum, and you get Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance or Pension Credit, or payment on account of one of these benefits (via a Budgeting Loan)
• immediate help with day-to-day living costs or something else in an emergency (via a Crisis Loan)
• help to buy things for a new baby and you or your partner get a low-income benefit or tax credit (via a Sure Start Maternity Grant)
• help towards paying for a funeral if you get a low-income benefit or tax credit (via a Funeral Payment)
• extra help paying for heating bills when a period of cold weather is triggered in the area where you live and you receive Pension Credit, or Income Support, or income based JobSeeker's Allowance and have a pensioner or disability premium, or a child who is disabled or aged under five (via a Cold Weather Payment)
• extra help paying for heating bills when a period of cold weather is triggered in the area where you live during winter and you are over 60 (via a Winter Fuel Payment)

•   29 September Shelter
  address

  88 Old Street, London EC1V 9HU
  telephone

  0808 800 4444
  email

  info@shelter.org.uk
  website

  http://www.shelter.org.uk

  Help with homelessness, rents, mortgages, re-housing, experiencing harassment or violence in your home, housing benefits and people living in crowded or unsuitable housing. They have contact details for housing associations in the London area. Online information centre provides up to date and easy to understand definitions and answers to many common housing issues, and their free helpline offers individual guidance.

•   29 September Disability and carers benefits advice
  website

  http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/FinancialSupport/Introductiontofinancialsupport/DG_065148

  Collected information on benefits for disabled people and their carers.

•   29 September JobCentre Plus
  website

  http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk

  Manages and delivers benefits on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions, including JobSeeker's Allowance and some others. Can also help unemployed people with training and finding work.

•   29 September Community Care
  website

  http://www.communitycare.co.uk

  Excellent resource for an overview of the benefits system, including articles on new benefits and elegibility.

•   29 September Disabled Person's Tax Credit Help Line
  telephone

  0845 605 58 58
  address

  0845 608 88 44
  website

  http://www.rsi.org.uk/advice/disabled_persons_tax_credit.html

  For people who have an illness or disability that puts them at a disadvantage in getting a job. See website or call the helpline for details of eligibility and how to claim.

• benefits
• tax
• retirement
• money