The Expansion to the Adviser Discretion Fund including an amendment to the childcare costs element of Universal Credit - screening

The Employment and Training Act (Northern Ireland) 1950, as amended by Article 3 of the Employment and Training (Amendment) (NI) Order 1988 is the legislative basis upon which the Department for Communities has been delegated the authority to provide assistance to people to find employment. This enables the Department to ‘make such arrangements as it considers appropriate for the purpose of assisting persons to select, train for, obtain and retain employment suitable for their ages and capacities or of assisting persons to obtain suitable employees’.

The Adviser Discretion Fund (ADF) is one of the schemes that the Department for Communities currently has in place which provides direct support to individuals, complementing provision available as part of the Department’s employment offer. The principle of the provision is that it can deliver quick and easy solutions to barriers to employment.