§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer of 1 March,Official Report, column 319 regarding advice to social fund officers on reviews of claims following the High Court judgment, what is the necessary advice on the question of reviews to which he referred.
§ Mr. ScottWe will shortly be issuing advice to social fund officers on their responsibilities for reviewing applications in accordance with the legislation and the directions. I shall send the hon. Member a copy.
§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer of 6 March,Official Report, column 584, if he will inform the hon. Member for Oldham, West when he makes the information available in machine-readable form to the Library.
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§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will indicate, out of total loan payments made available under the social fund, the sum written off as irrecoverable or for any other reason, in 1988–89, and hence the extra outlay provided at the start of the 1989–90 financial year in order to maintain loan payments at the previous level; and if he will give his estimate for the same purpose in the current financial year.
§ Mr. Scott[holding answer 26 February 1990]: During 1988–89 loan repayments to the value of £53,000 were treated as impracticable to pursue. This did not affect the amount available for loans in 1989–90. The corresponding amount in 1989–90 for the period to the end of January 1990 was £735,000; this sum includes loans made in 1988–89.
§ Mr. WareingTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what monetary amount has been deducted up to the end of January 1990 from income support in order to repay social fund loans(a) nationally, (b) regionally and (c) in each local Department of Social Security area.
§ Mr. Scott[holding answer 7 March 1990]: Provisional information in relation to national and regional data in the period April 1989 to January 1990 is given in the table. The other information requested is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Table: Regions £ million North East 15.10 North West 13.87 Midlands 12.59 London North 9.11 London South 8.03 Wales and South West 8.41 Scotland 16.10 National 183.22 1 Figures do not sum due to rounding.