§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will list the total of grants paid, and the total cost of administration, of the Family Fund in each year of its operation;
(2) how much money has been paid out in grants by the Family Fund in each of the last 12 months for which figures are available;
(3) if he will list the cumulative mean size of grant to families of handicapped 679W children by the Family Fund in each month since February 1976, the rate of increase in size of grant each month and the number of first payments to families;
(4) how many families containing handicapped children have now been helped by the Family Fund; what has
April 1973–30th September 1974 1st October 1974–30th September 1975 1st October 1975–30th September 1976 1st October 1976–30th September 1977 Total number of grants paid 14,389 20,675 16,576 17,427 Total cost of administration £132,715 £194,739 £162,544 £238,897 Money paid out in grants £2,225,265 £3,513,306 £2,153,321 £2,204,274
Month Cumulative mean size of grant Rate of increase in size of grant Number of first payments Money paid out in grants £ Per cent. £ February 1976 … … 290 635 March 1976 … … 291 0.34 702 April 1976 … … 292 0.34 572 May 1976 … … 292 — 550 June 1976 … … 294 0.68 588 July 1976 … … 294 0.68 539 August 1976 … … 295 0.34 514 September 1976 … … 296 0.34 507 October 1976 … … 296 0.34 537 156,176 November 1976 … … 297 0.34 438 152,446 December 1976 … … 297 0.34 379 118,613 January 1977 … … 296 0.34 437 135,889 February 1977 … … 298 0.67 555 223,663 March 1977 … … 300 0.67 452 179,497 April 1977 … … 301 0.33 363 154,797 May 1977 … … 305 1.33 500 270,135 June 1977 … … 309 1.31 435 261,388 July 1977 … … 312 0.97 418 196,888 August 1977 … … 313 0.32 436 167,702 September 1977 … … 315 0.64 410 201,487 The cumulative mean grant is the mean total amount paid to each family helped by the Family Fund.
Between April 1973 and 30th September 1977 the number of families helped by the Family Fund was 31,611 and a total of 69,067 payments were made at a cost of £10,096,166. The average value of payments was £146.18. As the statistics do not differentiate between the total spent on first and subsequent payments, however, and as first payments are usually larger than subsequent ones, neither the total number of payments nor the average payment can be regarded as a significant indicator.