Mr. Jim Callaghanasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if she 195W will list the cumulative mean size of grant to families of handicapped children by the Family Fund in each month since April 1972; and if she will also list the rate of increase in size of grant each month and the number of first payments to families;
(2) how many families received grants from the Family Fund in December 1974 and December 1975, respectively; and what was the average size of each payment;
(3) what was the average amount of first payments to families by the Family Fund in each of the last six months.
§ Mr. Alfred Morris,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 19th March 1976; Vol. 907, c. 657], circulated the following information:
196W
Year Month Cumulative mean grant (£) Percentage increase in cumulative mean grant each month Number of first payments 1973 … … April/May (the first month of operation) 68 — 39 June 78 14.7 77 July 107 37.2 68 August 108 0.9 141 September 109 0.9 176 October 146 33.9 226 November 163 11.6 483 December 149 −8.6 708 1974 … … January 175 17.4 669 February 188 17.4 669 March 200 6.4 942 April 209 4.5 620 May 213 1.9 1,033 June 216 1.4 898 July 219 1.4 1,075 August 224 2.3 860 September 232 3.6 755 October 234 0.9 1,029 November 233 −0.4 827 December 243 4.3 755 1975 … … January 249 2.5 853 February 256 2.8 928 March 258 0.8 769 April 267 3.5 869 May 269 0.7 1,219 June 275 2.2 758 July 278 1.1 1,146 August 282 1.4 763 September 287 1.8 523 October 289 0.1 457 November 289 0.0 52S December 289 0.0 590 1976 … … January 289 0.0 537 February 290 0.3 635 Footnote: In my reply to my hon. Friend on 24th February—[Vol. 906, c 182]—the figures for average payment which I gave were the cumulative mean grants per case. For my hon. Friend's information, I use the term "grant" to mean the cost of a specific item of help, which may be met by more than one payment. The statistics available do not differentiate between the total spent on first and subsequent payments; information about the average size of first payments is, therefore, not available. Because first payments are usually larger than subsequent ones, it would not be meaningful to quote figures of average payments.
The Fund made a total of 1,249 and 1,209 payments in December 1974 and 1975, respectively. The number of families receiving these payments is not known but will be a lesser figure.
The information sought about cumulative mean size of grant, the rate of monthly increase, and the number of first payments, is as folows: