The Social Fund: Law and Practice, 3rd Edition

The Social Fund: Law and Practice introduced in 1988, plays a major part in the UK's welfare benefit system. This book, split into two sections - a narrative text and an annotation of the relevant legislation and directions - gives a complete rundown of all aspects of this increasingly important feature of the social security system.

The narrative section has been substantially re-structured since the last edition and contains entirely new Chapters on Community Care Grants, Crisis Loans, Budgeting Loans and Social Fund Reviews. It also contains an introductory Chapter setting out the background and history of the discretionary Social Fund, a Chapter on Judicial Review & Human Rights and a newly written Chapter that reviews and evaluates the Research and Reform initiatives that have taken place over the life of the Social Fund. Finally, there is a Chapter that deals with theregulated Social Fund – Maternity, Funeral and Heating Expenses.

The reference section provides the complete text of the relevant primary legislation, statutory instruments and the Secretary of State’s social fund directions that form the legal structure of the discretionary and regulated social fund schemes. It also sets out detailed and comprehensive annotations to all the legislative materials including appropriate cross referencing. It offers a complete synopsis of the 29 judicial review challenges to the Social Fund. It contains four key Social Fund Commissioner’s advice notes along with a complete list of the existing 42 notes available in full text from the Independent Review Service’s website. It includes an anonymised sample of an Area Decision Maker’s Guidance document and the latest Instrument of Nomination and Authorisation. There is also a flowchart setting out the various social fund review processes and the final Appendix sets out the unique order of consideration, involving six tiers of decision-making underlying the legal structure of the discretionary Social Fund.