HC Deb 18 December 1989 vol 164 cc69-70W
Mr. Battle

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what has been the percentage rate of refusals for(a) community care grants, (b) budgeting loans, (c) crisis loans and (d) total, for each month of the operation of the social fund since April 1988; and what he estimates the future percentage rate of refusals to be between now and April 1990.

Mr. Scott

Details of the refusal rates for the three types of payment are in the Library. The total refusal rate for the three types of payment can be derived from the numbers of applications decided and awards made which are also available in the Library. Estimates of future refusal rates are not available.

Mr. Dobson

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will give for each year since 1978 the grants for simple insulation measures made available under single payments and the social fund.

Mr. Scott

The information that is available is shown in the table.

Single payments for draughtproofing
Total amount paid £ Number of payments
December 1981 14,526 584
December 1982 55,940 2,586
December 1983 181,337 8,921
December 1984 608,317 23,544
February 1986 1,827,932 63,503
May 1987 4,488,535 128,255

Source: Annual Statistical Inquiry.

1. Single payments commenced in November 1980 and the first data were collected in December 1981.

2. The data relate to all payments made during the 12 months prior to the inquiry. However, they exclude payments made to claimants who ceased to receive supplementary benefit prior to the date of the inquiry, therefore the figures quoted may be an undercount of the actual payments made.

3. Breakdown of single payments for 1987–88 is not available.

4. Since April 1988, provision for draughtproofing has been made mainly through Community Insulation Projects funded by the Training Commission, now the Training Agency. Payments for simple measures may also be available from the social fund.