Social Fund Jenny Willott To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many staff at each of his Department's offices were employed to process (a) crisis loans, (b) budgeting loans and (c) community care grant applications in each month since 2003; and if he will make a statement; (2) how many staff were employed in running the Social Fund in each month since April 2003, broken down by site and scheme; and if he will make a statement; (3) how many staff were employed to process (a) crisis loan, (b) budgeting loan and (c) community care grant applications in each month since 2003, broken down by location of employment; and if he will make a statement. Mr. Plaskitt The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. I have asked her to provide the hon. Member with the information requested. Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 17 July 2008: The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your recent questions on staff allocations for social fund application processing asking: how many staff at each of his Department's offices were employed to process (a) crisis loans (b) budgeting loans and (c) community care grant applications in each month since 2003: how many staff were employed in running the Social Fund in each month since April 2003 broken down by site and scheme: how many staff were employed to process (a) a crisis loan (b) a budgeting loan and (c) community care grant applications in each month since 2003 broken down by location of employment. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus. We began centralising benefit delivery in April 2006. Prior to this staff were working on social fund applications at Jobcentres and Social Security offices throughout the country and we did not keep staffing data specific to these job roles. The available information is for the total number of staff employed nationally on each Social Fund type and is set out in the following table. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |April 2006|May 2006|June 2006|July 2006|August 2006|September 2006| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Process SF Community Care Grants|578.73 |585.9 |600.77 |635.11 |626.29 |614.39 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Process SF Crisis Loans |658.69 |855.61 |847.62 |849.55 |860.16 |848.97 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Process SF Budgeting Loans |899.59 |960.35 |981.1 |994.18 |988.03 |986.72 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |October 2006|November 2006|December 2006|January 2007|February 2007|March 2007| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Process SF Community Care Grants|632.6 |634.7 |634.32 |645.43 |637.5 |635.45 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Process SF Crisis Loans |1,018.64 |1,042.34 |1,076.91 |1,041.20 |1,014.04 |1,017.65 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Process SF Budgeting Loans |980.35 |970.1 |952.6 |935.79 |947.16 |931.5 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |April 2007|May 2007|June 2007|July 2007|August 2007|September 2007| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Process SF Community Care Grants|639.18 |639.49 |653 |648.19 |611.38 |609.07 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Process SF Crisis Loans |1,018.04 |1,053.50|1,128.56 |1,541.62 |1,560.06 |1,814.32 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Process SF Budgeting Loans |890.81 |900.05 |875.61 |800.82 |669.16 |629.31 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |October 2007|November 2007|December 2007|January 2008|February 2008|March 2008| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Process SF Community Care Grants|610.43 |573.17 |559.96 |560.99 |560.16 |553.43 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Process SF Crisis Loans |1,814.23 |1,833.30 |1,823.42 |1,825.56 |1,799.51 |1,754.12 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Process SF Budgeting Loans |631.57 |555.62 |597.05 |561.08 |558.84 |525.17 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ | |April 2008|May 2008| ------------------------------------------------------------ |Process SF Community Care Grants |561.4 |579.97 | ------------------------------------------------------------ |Process SF Crisis Loans |1,261.68 |1,311.28| ------------------------------------------------------------ |Process SF Budgeting Loans |470.9 |455.44 | ------------------------------------------------------------ |Source:Activity Based Management Data.| | | ------------------------------------------------------------