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Welfare Reform Bill

In terms of why the 54 per cent did not get an award, I refer my noble friend to the annual report from which I was quoting. In any event, I will follow up with further detail of that because it is not specifically identified in this tabulation. I also make clear on the record that 2.1 million applications were received for crisis loans. There were awards of £1.4 million. Gross expenditure was £121 million and recoveries were £66 million. Thus the net expenditure was £54 million. Applications for such loans have now stabilised at around 270,000 a month between January and May 2009, although in February we hit a record level of 305,000. Twice as many people now get crisis loans as two years ago. Over recent years, we have put additional money into the Social Fund.