About the Office of the Social Fund Commissioner
Our site is aimed at those who have an interest in the Social Fund and it's review process. It has a wide range of information that will help frontline decision makers, representatives, advisors and customers.
The Office of the Social Fund Commissioner (OSFC) is based in Belfast and serves all of Northern Ireland. A separate organisation with offices in Birmingham serves Great Britain.
Our core business is to deliver an independent review of discretionary Social Fund decisions made in the Social Security Agency. We also share information and expertise with those who have an interest in the discretionary Social Fund and its review. We participate in social policy research that contributes to the wide debate about the Social Fund and related issues.
About the Social Fund Commissioner
Karamjit Singh CBE was appointed as the Social Fund Commissioner for Great Britain and Northern Ireland with effect from 1st December 2009. He takes over from Sir Richard Tilt.
He is the Judicial Appointments Ombudsman for Northern Ireland and is also a member of the Queens Counsel Selection Panel for England and Wales.
The early stages of his career covered academia, casework in the voluntary sector, local government and the Commission for Racial Equality.
During the past two decades his public appointments include considering complaints against the police; taking parole decisions; investigating suspected miscrriages of justice; training of the judiciary; selection of senior civil servants; regulation of financial services; chairing an NHS mental health Trust; regulation of donations to political parties and performance standards in electoral administration; and a membership of employment tribunals.
His voluntary interests have included being a Trustee of the Citizenship Foundation, the Lloyds TSB Foundation, the British Lung Foundation and organising free medical camps in India.
He was awarded the CBE in 1999 for services to the administration of justice.
OSFC Organisation Chart (28KB Word) 
For more detailed information about the OSFC,please see our Annual Report in the Publications section. More information, which we hope you find useful, is also available in other sections of the web site.
Equality - Section 75
The OSFC is fully committed to equality:
- Between persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation;
- Between men and women generally;
- Between persons with a disability and persons without; and
- Between persons with dependants and persons without.
This refers to Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act.
We have published our Equality Scheme and most recent Equality Progress Reports. These can be found in our Publications section.
