§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list for each scheme operated by his Department under which loans are available, the objectives of the scheme, the number of unrecovered loans, the total value of unrecovered loans, the average number of unrecovered loans for each year since 1990, the average value of unrecovered loans for each year since 1990 and the annual cost of recovering loans.
§ Mr. ScottThe administration of the social fund is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member with such information as is available.
Letter from M. Bichard to Mr. Matthew Taylor, dated 20 January 1994:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about loan schemes which are operated by his Department.The Social Fund (SF) scheme is intended to help people to meet large intermittent or unexpected expenses. There are two types of interest free loans available from the SF—Budgeting Loans (BL) and Crisis Loans (CL). BLs are available to people who have been on Income Support for at least 26 weeks to help with important expenses which are difficult to budget for out of weekly benefit. CLs are available to people who need financial help to meet expenses in an emergency or a disaster, whether they are receiving any benefit or not. However, a CL can only be awarded if it is the only way to prevent serious risk, or serious damage, to the health or safety of that person or a member of his family.The table at Annex A provides details of the number and total amount of unrecovered loans for each of the financial years ending March 1990 to March 1992 (latest year available).SF loans are normally recovered by weekly deductions from benefit. Customers can.only repay one loan at a time, so recovery of any subsequent loans is deferred to a later date. The amount outstanding therefore includes loans which have been deferred and also loans where recovery is continuing, but which have only been partially repaid.You also asked for the annual cost of recovering loans. Unfortunately this information is not available.I hope you find this reply helpful.904W
Annex A Year End Date Number of loans unrecovered The value of the loans unrecovered (Thousands) £ (Millions) 31 March 1990 814.95 107.691 31 March 1991 992.90 138.783 31 March 1992 1,312.30 178.376