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Written question asked by Jenny Willott (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 30 June 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 2 July 2008. It was answered by James Plaskitt (Labour) on Monday, 6 October 2008 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Social Fund: Finance

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the budget allocation for (a) crisis loans, (b) community care grants and (c) budgeting loans was for each Jobcentre Plus office administering such schemes in each year since April 2003; and if he will make a statement.
Answer

The available information broken down by Jobcentre Plus budget area is in the tables.

Loans Budgets for Jobcentre Plus budget areas
2006-07¹ 2007-08¹
East of England
Essex £14,923,029 £13,412,523
Norwich Benefit Delivery Centre £28,069,475 £25,753,252
East Midlands
East Midlands North £19,342,193 £18,277,376
South East Midlands £22,621,886 £20,739,261
London
Central and East London £25,269,947 £21,708,685
London South £38,383,269 £32,853,209
North and North East London £22,857,023 £21,206,623
West London £15,709,849 £13,354,462
North East
Northumbria £16,929,699 £15,815,463
South Tyneside and Wear Valley £16,925,575 £17,125,954
Tees Valley £14,440,674 £13,813,267
North West
Chorlton Benefit Delivery Centre £66,904,699 £62,929,808
Greater Liverpool and Cheshire £47,375,823 £42,824,560
Scotland
Inverness Benefit Delivery Centre £25,681,880 £23,338,906
Springburn Benefit Delivery Centre £59,164,971 £55,274,217
South East
Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Surrey £15,231,730 £15,426,221
Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent and Sussex £38,335,562 £38,065,260
South West
South West Central £37,929,724 £33,884,729
Wales
Llanelli Benefit Delivery Centre £11,439,723 £11,672,162
South East Wales £30,522,165 £27,304,760
West Midlands
West Midlands Social Fund £66,336,387 £59,234,565
Yorkshire and Humberside
Bradford £18,025,465 £16,285,137
Sheffield £47,579,252 £41,699,600
¹ Loans budgets for Jobcentre Plus districts (now budget areas) are therefore given only for the final reallocation or in year allocation in the 2006/07 and 2007/08 financial years. These figures do not include some end of year adjustments to ensure no budgets were overspent. These adjustments were made possible because of underspends elsewhere.
Community care grant budgets for Jobcentre Plus budget areas for 2007-08
£
East of England
Essex 2,347,144
Norwich Benefit Delivery Centre 6,083,490
East Midlands
East Midlands North 3,690,502
South East Midlands 5,027,738
London
Central and East London 7,177,466
London South 8,985,071
North and North East London 4,314,406
West London 3,660,504
North East
Northumbria 2,627,314
South Tyneside and Wear Valley 2,622,220
Tees Valley 2,456,473
North West
Chorlton Benefit Delivery Centre 12,402,721
Greater Liverpool and Cheshire 8,141,316
Scotland
Inverness Benefit Delivery Centre 5,743,635
Springburn Benefit Delivery Centre 15,605,303
South East
Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Surrey 2,630,592
Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent and Sussex 5,865,720
South West
South West Central 8,060,436
Wales
Llanelli Benefit Delivery Centre 2,555,656
South East Wales 5,616,541
West Midlands
West Midlands Social Fund 13,207,411
Yorkshire and Humberside
Bradford 3,200,914
Sheffield 8,977,427
Notes:
1. There are not separate budgets for crisis loans and budgeting loans, but rather a combined loans budget for both. The loans budget is managed centrally and re-allocations are made to Jobcentre Plus budget areas quarterly and towards the end of the year. Funds are taken from some of those budget areas with a projected end of year underspend and given to other budget areas.
2. To provide comparable data, budgets are presented on the basis of the current budget area structure. In recent years, there have been many changes to the boundaries of Jobcentre Plus districts, which have led to adjustment of the budgets for the districts involved. In some cases, a district has been split and the parts merged with other districts. For the districts involved in such a situation it is not possible to give comparable budgets from April 2003. The last split took place in August 2006.
3. Community Care Grants for 2006-07 were set before the boundary change in August 2006 involving a split district, and so are not given here. Community Care Grants budgets are not reallocated during the year. However, some allocations were made from the Contingency Reserve in 2007-08. These have not been included. The budgets for 2008-09 are the same as for 2007-08.
Source:
Departmental records of budgets.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
480 c73-6W; 216049
Session
2007-08
Subjects
Finance Social Fund
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk