A : Eligibility for grants and budgeting loans depends on whether or not you receive a qualifying benefit (income support or income based job seekers allowance).

Budgeting loans: To be eligible for a budgeting loan you must, on the date your case is decided, have been receiving either Income Support or Income Based Jobseeker's Allowance for at least 26 weeks.

We also take into account earlier periods when you received a qualifying benefit, as long as any break in benefit receipt does not exceed 28 days. We must look at specific legal tests when deciding whether to ignore a break in your receipt of a qualifying benefit. If you think this situation applies to your application, you should ask the person who handles your case for advice.

The three waiting days at the start of a claim for income based job seekers allowance do not count as days in receipt of a qualifying benefit.

Unless you have received a qualifying benefit for at least 26 weeks you cannot be awarded a budgeting loan.

Community care grant: When you apply for a community care grant you must (but for the exception covered below) be receiving a qualifying benefit in order to become eligible. A qualifying benefit is income support or income based job seekers allowance. Applications for grants can be considered before a qualifying benefit is awarded if you are leaving institutional or residential care. A grant can be awarded up to six weeks before discharge if it appears likely you will be entitled to income support or income based job seekers allowance when you leave care.

If you do not receive a qualifying benefit, or are unlikely to do so on discharge from institutional or residential care, you will not be eligible for a grant.

Crisis loans: A qualifying benefit does not have to be in payment in order for you to be eligible for a crisis loan. However, you must be aged 16 or over to be eligible for a crisis loan. In order to be eligible you must also be without sufficient resources to meet immediate short-term needs.

If you become eligible for a grant or loan, this does not automatically mean you will get a payment. Your application must go on to meet specific qualification tests before a payment is considered.

A : Start by sending your local Social Security Agency a self-completion application form SF300.

These are available from the Social Security Agency and many advice centres. Grants are intended to promote community care by:

• helping people leaving care to establish themselves in the community
• helping people remain in the community rather than enter care
• helping with the care of a prisoner or young offender on release or temporary licence
• easing exceptional pressure on families · helping people set up home as part of a resettlement programme
• assisting with certain travelling expenses.

To qualify for a grant you must show that you fall into one, or more, of the situations listed earlier. Grants are intended to help people on income support or income based job seekers allowance who face difficulty arising from these special types of circumstance.

A : The Social Fund is a discretionary scheme that is cash limited. Each district of the Social Security Agency has an annual grants budget and an annual loans budget. These annual budgets are fixed and must not be exceeded.

There is no legal entitlement to a grant, even when you qualify for one. If you qualify for a grant, the decision-maker next decides whether the expenses you request have enough priority for payment. We take the circumstances of your case into account to decide the appropriate level of priority for each of the expenses you want help with.

Having decided the priority of each of your expenses, the decision-maker decides which of these the limited budget can meet.

The Social Fund Manager to Area Decision Maker in each Social Security Agency district office must manage the budget. He issues guidance about the level of priority (generally high, medium or low) that may be met from the district's grants budget. If the state of the budget means that only high priorities can be met, you are likely to be refused a grant for expenses that have only medium or low priority.

A : The Secretary of State gives guidance on establishing priority. When establishing priority the decision-maker takes account of all the circumstances of your case.

Examples of circumstances that may influence priority assessment include:

• type of expenses applied for
• reason for the request
• the effect an award will have
• whether any other help is available
• health issues
• living conditions
• social history
• general circumstances of yourself and family

This list is not exhaustive.

Local guidance states to advises which level of priority the budget can meet (generally high, medium or low for grants).

A: Start by sending your local Social Security Agency a self-completion application form SF401. These are available from the Social Security Agency and many advice centres.

Crisis loans can only be paid to help you meet expenses in an emergency, or as a consequence of a disaster. Neither of these terms is defined in Social Fund law. The OSFC working definition of "emergency" is "an unforeseen circumstance or pressing need, either of which requires immediate remedy or action". We give the term "disaster" its everyday meaning.

A crisis loan cannot be paid unless it is the only means of preventing serious damage or serious risk to health and safety. This means you cannot get a crisis loan unless you have no other resources or ways of meeting your need.

A: Since April 1999 there are separate application forms for each element of the discretionary Social Fund (grants, budgeting loans and crisis loans). You are now expected to apply, on the appropriate form, for the type of payment you want. In order to apply for a Social Fund award, send your local Social Security Agency a self-completion form (SF500 for a budgeting loan, SF401 for a crisis loan, SF300 for a grant).

Before April 1999 you did not need to complete separate application forms for different types of payment. Although there are separate application forms for grants and budgeting loans, it remains possible for a grant application to be treated as one for a crisis loan (and vice versa). However a budgeting loan application cannot be treated as an application for any other type of payment. It can lead only to a budgeting loan decision. If you want to be considered for a grant or crisis loan, you must fill in the appropriate form.

If you are unsure about which type of payment best relates to your circumstances, you may choose to ask an advice centre or the Social Security Agency to help you decide.

Budgeting loans are still available to help people on income support or income based job seekers allowance with intermittent expenses. Eligibility depends on whether or not you receive these qualifying benefits at the right time, see question two. Budgeting loans are still interest free and paid from a cash limited fund.

Unlike grants and crisis loans they are not aimed at meeting specific needs in particular situations. The scope of the budgeting loan scheme is defined by the following categories of items:

• Furniture and household equipment
• Clothing and footwear
• Rent in advance and/or removal expenses to secure fresh accommodation
• Improvement, maintenance and security of the home
• Travelling expenses
• Expenses associated with seeking or re-entering work
• HP and other debts (for expenses associated with the above categories).

For budgeting loan applications you no longer need to give a breakdown of the item details, or the amount you need for each item. You just need to show which of the broad categories (see above) your expenses fall into, together with the total sum you need.

Because the budgeting loan fund remains cash limited, applications still need to be prioritised. The maximum individual amount you can borrow depends on factors that include the amount of time you and/or your partner have been on benefit, your family size and how much you already owe to the Social Fund.