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Discretionary Social Fund

My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, (Helen Goodman) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. The Secretary of State will be making changes to the discretionary Social Fund in relation to direction 17, with effect from 1 April 2010. With effect from 1 April, a new benefit sanction for all first offences of benefit fraud "one strike" will be introduced along with a sanction for those jobseeker’s allowance claimants who fail to attend their fortnightly reviews. Direction 17 of the discretionary Social Fund will be amended to take account of these new sanctions. This will ensure that all healthy childless people with no caring responsibilities who apply for a crisis loan, regardless of which benefit they receive, will not be able to counter a benefit sanction by applying for a crisis loan for living expenses. As now, they will be able to apply for a crisis loans to alleviate the consequences of a disaster or for the expenses for items for cooking or heating when there is a proven risk to their health or safety.