Dear Department for Communities (Northern Ireland),

Can you please share any guidance relied on by staff in Finance Support when making decisions on applications for discretionary support loans and grants?

The discretionary nature of these awards could give rise to inconsistency in decision making, unless effective guidance is in place to assist decision makers. Could you please share any such guidance and relevant memos.

The Department for Communities website contains a useful "decision making" section, which is populated with guidance for staff involved in making welfare benefits decisions, but does not appear to contain any information on the discretionary support fund. Can you please explain why this information is not publicly available?

Yours faithfully,

E Farrell