Departments Directions Social Fund Guide Part 5 - The Budget
Introduction to the national social fund budget
7000This section describes how the Northern Ireland cash limited Social Fund budget is controlled and managed.
7001-7019
7020The Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 and the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 provide for:
- a fund to be set up - ie the Social Fund, section 146(1) of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992
- the Department to allocate amounts in each financial year to decision makers (DMs) for Social Fund payments, sections 147(2), (3) and (4) of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992
- DMs must have regard to, amongst other things, the relevant allocation in deciding whether or not to make particular Social Fund payments or how much to award - section 136(3) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992
7021-7039
General financial arrangements 7040The annual Northern Ireland discretionary Social Fund Budget is made up of
- Annual treasury funding
- Anticipated loan repayments to the Fund during the financial year
7041It is therefore important that loans are recovered effectively.
7042There are two separate budget allocations made for payments by Decision Makers (DMs) in each District:
- A Northern Ireland loans budget for Budgeting Loans and Crisis Loans
- A Northern Ireland grants budget for Community Care Grants
7043A single Northern Ireland Allocation is made for loans and is monitored and managed centrally by Operations Directorate Support (ODS).
7044The Northern Ireland grants budget is sub divided and a budget allocation is made to each District. Each District must monitor and manage its own budget allocation for Community Care Grants.
7045The Department can re-allocate funds or make additional allocations in year.
7046The transfer of any part of the Social Fund grants budget from one District to another must be approved by the Department.
7047A contingency reserve is retained centrally within Operations Directorate Support to provide Districts with additional budget funding for grants should they be faced with additional expenditure resulting from unexpected one-off situations or local incidents
7048Allocations from the contingency reserve are made by the Department, based on evidence provided by the District.
7049The contingency reserve is not an alternative to normal budget management measures.
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