§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if she will list the number of applications for community care grants, the number of applications which were turned down and the number of refusals as a percentage of the total number of applications in each of the last three financial years. [6971]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Social Fund provides lump sum payments to help with exceptional or intermittent expenses. Applications to the discretionary Social Fund are made to the discretionary fund as a whole; not to parts of it. This means that an applicant may receive either a Community Care Grant or a loan depending on the social fund officer's assessment of the nature, extent and urgency of the need and the circumstances of the individual.
In 1995–96 for example, over half a million applicants who were refused a grant were instead awarded a loan. Similarly over 41,000 applications for budgeting loans were instead awarded a community care grant. Of those applicants who specifically request a Community Care Grant, the vast majority do not satisfy the appropriate criteria to demonstrate a grant is needed to promote care in the community. Over the three years to 1995–96, over 70 per cent. of the 1.25 million applications received annually for community care grants were refused on these grounds.
Further details can be found in the Department of Social Security's Annual Reports on the Social Fund which are available in the Library. The report for 1996–97 will be published later this month.