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

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