§ Mr. MartlewTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the effect on public revenues in 1996–97 and 1997–98 of extending entitlement to social fund(a) community care grants, (b) budgeting loans and (c) cold weather payments to families in receipt of family credit. [18105]
§ Mr. Roger EvansSince the discretionary social fund is cash limited, extending eligibility to community care grants and budgeting loans to families in receipt of family credit without increasing the cash limit would result in a higher rate of refusals but no extra cost, other than for the administration of any additional applications.
Alternatively, if the cash limit was increased in proportion to the number of families receiving family credit compared with those receiving income support, assuming the same level of demand is met and 713W comparable eligibility conditions apply, we estimate that an increase would be required to (a) the community care grants budget and to (b) the net amount available for budgeting loans as shown in the table. However, in a discretionary scheme there would be no guarantee that additional expenditure would all go to family credit recipients.
It is not possible to estimate the additional cost of cold weather payments, since the number of payments, being dependent on the weather, varies hugely and unpredictably from year to year. However, we estimate that the total number of eligible people and administration costs would be increased by roughly 10 per cent.
£ million 1996–97 1997–98 Administration costs, yearly (a) Community care grants 10 10 2 (b) Budgeting loans 15 7 5