HC Deb 21 July 1988 vol 137 cc823-4W
Mr. Wray

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what assessment he has made of whether the present funding and staff provisions for the social fund in Scotland are adequate to meet the urgent needs of Scottish claimants.

Mr. Portillo

For information on funding, I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for St. Helens, North (Mr. Evans) on 6 July at columns631–33. As far as the staffing provisions for the social fund are concerned, the Department's aim is to match staffing to work loads. The social fund entailed new procedures and assumptions had to be made about the required time for and frequency of component activities. A review of social fund staffing has been undertaken in order to establish whether proper staffing resources have been allocated.

Mr. McLeish

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) whether, in the statistics on the operation of the social fund which he places in the Library, he will include(a) totals for each region, (b) the percentage of applications for community care grants processed during the month that receive an award, (c) the percentage of applications for budgeting loans processed during the month which receive an offer of a loan and (d) the percentage of applications for crisis loans processed during the month that receive an offer of a loan;

(2) whether, when he places statistics on the operation of the social fund in the Library, he will express these as cumulative totals for the year to date, including revisions to previous months' data and late returns.

Benefit rates: Increases in real terms
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Benefit November 1979 actual November 1979 at April 1988 prices April 1988 actual Percentage increase (c) over (b)
1. Retirement Pension
Single 23.30 40.91 41.15 0.6
Couple 37.30 65.50 65.90 0.6
2. Non.Contributory Over 80's Pension
Single 14.50 24.58 24.75 0.7
Couple 22.40 39.33 39.55 0.6

Mr. Portillo

No. This would add considerably to the amount of information we have undertaken to provide, and for the most part these can be calculated from the data already provided.

Mr. McLeish

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services whether, when he places statistics on the operation of the social fund in the Library, he will also provide the data on 5¼ in DOS compatible floppy disk.

Mr. Portillo

We are looking into that.