Department of Work and Pensions: The Community Care Grant
National Audit Office report
22 July 2010
The report finds that the community care grant has an important role in helping vulnerable people to establish themselves in the community and in easing exceptional pressure on families. The scheme is deliberately designed to be flexible so that it can provide help in good time to those who need it but the scheme as currently designed does not deliver value for money.
The DWP does not agree with some aspects of the report.
The report's conclusions on value for money
The Agency does not monitor whether it is targeting the awards sufficiently on those disadvantaged groups in greatest need, and the large number of applications that it has to process that are never likely to be approved add considerably to the administrative burden.
The Department’s existing budgets for each area generate inequalities across the country which means that in areas with disproportionately low allocations, a greater percentage of people in need cannot be assisted with a grant.
The cost of administrative error is high. The Agency lacks information on the extent of fraud and error by customers, and the Grant scheme does not have sufficient controls in place to tackle these risks.
The Grant funds awarded for frequently requested items are not consistently at the lowest prices. This matters because the Grant funds are finite and delivering assistance at the lowest cost would allow the Grant to help more vulnerable people.
Recommendations of the report
To increase the value achieved from Grant spend in order to fund further high a priority applications the Department and Agency should:
Formalise existing working practices regarding the use of price guides so that differences in prices are justified. Greater consistency with Newcastle or Liverpool price guides could reduce costs by an estimated £7.5 million.
Review and challenge price variations in order to encourage greater consistency of prices paid for generic items like a cooker.
Establish the costs and benefits of using centralised contracts for the provision of items. We estimate that a minimum of £14 million could be saved each year.
If a centralised contract is deemed feasible, the approach should involve:
researching the market, to draw on the knowledge and experience of other bodies that use a centralised procurement approach;
conducting an initial pilot so that the results can be evaluated; and
exploring collaboration with other organisations to increase buying power.
To improve the targeting of the Grant scheme to make the most of the funds available the Department and Agency should:
Develop a strategy to promote the scheme through third parties who work with vulnerable people at risk of needing state care, or coming out of state care, or those working with families under extreme pressure.
Monitor whether the Grant is benefitting those most in need and evaluate whether the payments made to them alleviate the burden on the state care system.
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