Thousands of households in severe financial difficulty get cash help thanks to changes to the Discretionary Assistance Fund urged by the Bevan Foundation.
Insight
The Discretionary Assistance Fund (DAF) provides one-off payments to people in financial crisis. and has seen demand soar in recent years. We found that DAF has many more more demands on it than it was designed for, and that there was some confusion about the rules and reports of difficulties accessing the fund.
Ideas
In 2022/23 we successfully persuaded the Welsh Government to clarify the rules and to top up the budget for emergency payments. Then in 2023/24 we called for:
- The value of DAF emergency payments to be increased at least in line with inflation.
- The frequency of emergency payments to be standardised at 7 days apart (instead of 28 days)
- The number of emergency payments that someone is eligible for should be five in 12 months not three.
And for 2024/25, we urged the Welsh Government to ensure people could continue to be helped by maintaining the existing DAF budget and arrangements.
Outcomes
Most of our recommendations have been actioned by the Welsh Government with:
- the average value of DAF emergency payments being increased by inflation i.e. 11% in 2023/24
- emergency payments being allowed every 7 days rather than 28 days apart, with up to three payments in 12 months
- the budget for DAF being increased by £18.8 million to £38.5 in 2023/24 and being held at thhis level in 2024/25
