Receipt of Discretionary Social Fund Awards : findings from the Family Resources Survey

The Centre for Research in Social Policy has been commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to research the current role and future direction of the Social Fund. The research is focused on the Discretionary Social Fund. This is one of two quantitative working papers produced as part of the research. It is based on secondary analysis of the Family Resources Survey and examines receipt of Discretionary Social Fund awards. The other paper uses data from the Family Expenditure Survey/Expenditure and Food Survey and examines the questions: who uses the Discretionary Social Fund?; what are the variations in amount of loans and grants, and loan repayments, between families?; and what is the Social Fund used for? (Magadi and Beckhelling, 2006).