Crisis Loans

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of payments from the Social Fund were for crisis loans in the latest period for which information was available; and what other types of payments were made during that period. (268703)

The available information is given in the following table.

*Crisis loan gross expenditure as a percentage of total social fund gross expenditure in Great Britain for 2007-08*
	Percentage
Including Winter Fuel Payments	4.0
Excluding Winter Fuel Payments	12.8
Note: Apart from crisis loans, the other types of social fund payments made during 2007-08 were: winter fuel payments, Sure Start maternity grants, cold weather payments, funeral payments, community care grants and budgeting loans. Source: Annual report by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the social fund 2007-08 and, for winter fuel payments, the unrounded version corresponding to the table 3 entry at: www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/medium_term.asp

Volume 491: debated on Wednesday 22 April 2009