To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people have been refused social fund loan applications by social fund offices in each of the ILOs of Redcar, Eston, Middlesbrough, Stockton and Hartlepool, on the grounds that the applicants could not afford to repay such loans.

[holding answer 12 January 1990]: The precise information requested is not available. Social fund officers may refuse an application for one or more reasons and each reason given is recorded. The information in the table gives the number of occasions between 1 April 1989 and 1 December 1989 when "inability to repay" was recorded as a (but not necessarily the only) reason for refusal: