Social Fund

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many applications for (a) grants and (b) loans from the Social Fund were (i) approved and (ii) refused in each of the last 10 years. (252610)

The available information is in the following tables.

*Community care grants for* Great Britain
Thousand
	Initial awards	Initial refusal
1998-99	225	944
1999-2000	219	426
2000-01	225	362
2001-02	233	346
2002-03	245	346
2003-04	256	330
2004-05	261	307
2005-06	275	299
2006-07	271	324
2007-08	247	288

*Budgeting loans for* Great Britain
Thousand
	Initial awards	Initial refusals
1998-99	935	442
1999-2000	1,017	647
2000-01	1,145	531
2001-02	1,240	460
2002-03	1,251	466
2003-04	1,250	428
2004-05	1,200	377
2005-06	1,217	371
2006-07	1,298	411
2007-08	1,168	352

*Crisis loans for* Great Britain
Thousand
	Initial awards	Initial refusals
1998-99	866	247
1999-2000	939	336
2000-01	930	342
2001-02	991	317

Volume 487: debated on Thursday 29 January 2009