To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what has been the percentage rate of refusals for (a) community care grants, (b) budgeting loans, (c) crisis loans and (d) total, for each month of the operation of the social fund since April 1988; and what he estimates the future percentage rate of refusals to be between now and April 1990.
Details of the refusal rates for the three types of payment are in the Library. The total refusal rate for the three types of payment can be derived from the numbers of applications decided and awards made which are also available in the Library. Estimates of future refusal rates are not available.
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will give for each year since 1978 the grants for simple insulation measures made available under single payments and the social fund.
The information that is available is shown in the table.
| Single payments for draughtproofing | ||
| Total amount paid £ | Number of payments | |
| December 1981 | 14,526 | 584 |
| December 1982 | 55,940 | 2,586 |
| December 1983 | 181,337 | 8,921 |
| December 1984 | 608,317 | 23,544 |
| February 1986 | 1,827,932 | 63,503 |
| May 1987 | 4,488,535 | 128,255 |
Source: Annual Statistical Inquiry.
1. Single payments commenced in November 1980 and the first data were collected in December 1981.
2. The data relate to all payments made during the 12 months prior to the inquiry. However, they exclude payments made to claimants who ceased to receive supplementary benefit prior to the date of the inquiry, therefore the figures quoted may be an undercount of the actual payments made.
3. Breakdown of single payments for 1987–88 is not available.
4. Since April 1988, provision for draughtproofing has been made mainly through Community Insulation Projects funded by the Training Commission, now the Training Agency. Payments for simple measures may also be available from the social fund.