§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will give for the Greenock and Port Glasgow local offices of his Department the statistical information he has to date regarding the different reasons given by social fund officers for refusals to claimants for(a) budgeting loans, (b) crisis loans and (c) community care grants; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Scott[holding answer 25 January 1990]: Provisional figures for the period 9 April 1989 to 31 December 1990 are set out in the table.
The table gives the number of times that a reason for decision is used by social fund officers for determining a nil award for community care grants, budgeting and crisis loans.
An application can be refused for more than one reason. The total number of reasons for decision used will be equal to or greater than the number of applications refused. Information on the numbers of applications processed and awarded is available in the Library.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 19 May 1989, (Official Report, column 327–28), which gave the data for April 1988 to April 1989 for these offices.
382W
Grants Number of times a reason for refusal used Budgeting loans Number of times a reason for refusal used Crisis loans Number of times a reason for refusal used Office: Port Glasgow 1989–90 Savings over £500 meet the full cost 1 0 0 Not in receipt of IS n/a 109 0 Not in receipt of IS for 26 weeks n/a 154 0 Not in receipt of IS and not likely to qualify 90 0 0 Item(s) excluded by Direction 18 67 0 Applicant excluded 1363 7 2 Applied for less than £30 (not travelling expenses) 7 7 0
Grants Number of times a reason for refusal used Budgeting loans Number of times a reason for refusal used Crisis loans Number of times a reason for refusal used Adjusted amount less than £30 (not travelling expenses) 2 6 0 Total debt exceeds £1,000 0 1 1 Previous application and decision for this item 54 45 1 No serious risk to health or safety 0 0 3 Inability to repay 0 73 6 Help available from another source 5 7 2 Priority too low to meet from the budget 26 173 1 Alternative available to the whole application 10 3 1 Loan refused because CCG awarded 0 95 0 Direction 4 not satisfied 228 0 0 Others not covered above 24 21 6 1 Input errors have caused this figure to be inflated. 2 This information has been collected for two months only. Previously it was included in "Others".
Grants Number of times a reason for refusal used Budgeting loans Number of times a reason for refusal used Crisis loans Number of times a reason for refusal used Office: Greenock 1989–90 Savings over £500 meet the full cost 9 2 0 Not in receipt of IS n/a 233 0 Not in receipt of IS for 26 weeks n/a 321 0 Not in receipt of IS and not likely to qualify 148 0 0 Item(s) excluded by Direction 27 79 4 Applicant excluded 1 0 1 Applied for less than £30 (not travelling expenses) 9 24 0 Adjusted amount less than £30 (not travelling expenses) 3 23 0 Total debt exceeds £1,000 0 0 0 Previous application and decision for this item 50 152 1 No serious risk to health or safety 0 0 111 Inability to repay 0 59 3 Help available from another source 2 3 2 Priority too low to meet from the budget 8 624 4 Alternative available to the whole application 2 3 1 Loans refused because CCG awarded 0 92 0 Direction 4 not satisfied 165 0 0 Others not covered above 592 90 5 1 This information has been collected for two months only. Previously it was included in "Others".