AQW 14951/17-22

Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 18/02/2021
Answered On Date: 01/03/2021
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities to detail the criteria given to advisors who are administering the discretionary support isolation grant.

Answer:

The criteria applied by advisors when assessing applications for the Discretionary Support Self-Isolation grant is drawn from the Discretionary Support Regulations and set out as follows;

Persons applying for a self- isolation grant must satisfy the following criteria:

you are in financial difficulty

you or a member of your immediate family has been diagnosed with COVID-19 or

you or a member of your immediate family has advised to self-isolate in accordance with guidance published by the Regional Agency for Public Health and Social Well-being.

you are living here

you are 18 or over (there are some exceptions if you are 16 or 17)

your income or in the case of a couple your joint income is £20,404.80 or less (some forms of income will be excluded from this calculation)

There are some groups who are unable to apply for a self-isolation grant, these include:

prisoners or a person who is lawfully detained or on temporary release

a resident in a residential care home, a nursing home or a hospital in-patient unless you are going to be discharged within the next 2 weeks

a member of a religious order who is fully maintained by that order;

anyone who has their passport stamped “No recourse to public funds”

Further information on the criteria is available through the following link on NI Direct;

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/extra-financial-support