Flexible Support Fund

It is administered by Job Centres[1] and can be used by individual claimants for the cost of travel to interviews, childcare, tools and clothing and uniforms to start work.

A second part of the Flexible Support Fund allows District Managers to award funding to "partnership organisations" in order to address barriers to work.

Although no figure has published for the total budget for the Flexible Support Fund though a 2011 presentation for Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) external stakeholders stated that the fund would be "about £147 million nationally".

The Jobcentre Plus offer Equality Impact Assessment 2011 raised concerns of a "postcode lottery" in the provision of Job Centre services if Job Centre Managers were given too much flexibility under the scheme.

An undercover investigation published in The Daily Mirror newspaper revealed that DWP civil servants were being told not to mention the fund so as to minimise the number of claims: