HC Deb 30 November 1994 vol 250 cc769-71W
Mr. Mallon

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many applications for(a) community care grants, (b) budgeting loans and (c) crisis loans were received by each office of the Social Security Agency in each month since January 1993; and if he will break down the figures for applications which were (i) approved and (ii) refused.

Mr. Moss

Responsibility for the subject in question has been delegated to the Social Security Agency under its chief executive, Mr. Alec Wylie. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given, but as the tabular material is exceptionally lengthy I have arranged for it to be placed in the Library.

Tribunal Service (ITS) and around 250 are with the ITS for hearings to be arranged.

Mr. Mallon

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans there are to review the operation of the disability living allowance scheme.

Mr. Moss

There are no immediate plans to review policy on the disability living allowance scheme.

Mr. Mallon

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many applications for disability living allowance were received in each month since the introduction of this benefit; and if he will give, for each month, details of applications that are(a) approved, (b) refused, (c) withdrawn and (d) outstanding.

Mr. Moss

Responsibility for the subject in question has been delegated to the Social Security Agency under its chief executive, Mr. Alex Wylie. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Alec Wylie to Mr. Seamus Mallon, dated 28 November 1994: I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the numbers and outcome of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) applications received since its introduction. I am sorry that data for the period February 1992 to March 1993 is not readily available in the form you requested. Work has started on extracting the data and I will write to you when this becomes available. I can however supply you with the information for the period April 1993 to October 1994 and this is set out in the table below. I hope you will find this helpful.

Letter from Alec Wylie to Mr. Seamus Mallon, dated 28 November 1994: I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question requesting information about the number of applications for Community Care Grants, Budgeting and Crisis Loans. I am sorry that information is not held in precisely the format you have requested but I have set out the available data in the attached tables. As the Social Fund has been managed on a District basis from April 1991, it is not possible to provide details for each Social Security Office. I am therefore providing information by District but I have also included an annex to show which Social Security Offices make up each District. I should also explain that the number of awards made is the total of all awards made in each month, including those made as a result of a review, and the refusals information is the number of initial decisions to refuse as a percentage of all decisions made in that particular month. While, therefore, there is no direct correlation between the figures in each column in the table, the information as set out fairly reflects the general position on social fund applications.