§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) if he will give details of the formula by which social fund local office allocations will be calculated for the year 1990–91;
(2) when he expects to announce the local office allocations for the social fund for 1990–91;
(3) whether the additional allocations made to certain local offices for their social fund expenditure in 1989–90 will be taken into account when allocations for 1990–91 are calculated.
§ Mr. ScottIndividual social fund allocations to local offices for 1990–91 and details of the basis on which they are made will be announced in due course.
§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what criteria were used to determine which local offices would receive an extra allocation in December for their social fund budgets.
§ Mr. ScottThe extra allocation was made to those local offices whose budgets had come under exceptional 193W pressure as a result of high levels of demand. Particular factors taken into account included the extent to which the expenditure of individual offices exceeded their expenditure profiles, and changes in the levels of priority they were able to meet during the course of the year.
§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when it is expected that the social fund loans element will achieve a balance between the value of loans paid out and the value of repayments received.
§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether he will take further action to ease the difficulties experienced by those local offices which were not given extra allocations for their social fund budgets in December and which are now experiencing difficulties as great as those that were given extra allocations in managing their budgets.
§ Mr. ScottAdditional allocations have been made to a further 10 offices bringing the total number of offices helped to 106. We are continuing to monitor the situation closely. A revised list of offices has been placed in the Library today.