§ Mr. Hannamasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what factors she took into account in deciding to allocate a further £2,000,000 to the Family Fund; what is her estimate of the amount of money the Family Fund will be able to pay in grants each month in the coming 730W year; and if she will make a statement;
(2) how much money has been paid in grants by the Family Fund in each of the last 12 months for which figures are available.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisFigures of grants up to the end of June have been as follows:
£ July 1974 256,704 August 1974 232,831 September 1974 247,244 October 1974 254,748 November 1974 183,924 December 1974 301,561 January 1975 282,149 February 1975 329,503 March 1975 232,977 April 1975 364,574 May 1975 346,947 June 1975 310,231 Expenditure was particularly heavy in the first half of 1975 in dealing with a backlog of several thousand applications, and the second payment of £3 million which had been made to the fund will soon have been exhausted. Allowing for the likely drop in future in the number of initial applications, I decided to provide allocations for continuing the work of the fund at a level of £2 million a year.