Social Fund and Social Fund Commissioner (Annual Reports)
Work and Pensions
Steve Webb (Minister of State (Pensions), Work and Pensions; Thornbury and Yate, Liberal Democrat)
The Secretary of State’s annual report on the social fund for 2011-12 is to be laid before Parliament and published later today.
The report records that total gross expenditure in 2011-12, excluding winter fuel payments, was over £940 million. This figure includes over 216,000 non-repayable community care grants and almost 3.2 million interest-free loans awarded worth over £581 million. Also, cold weather payments worth £129 million, funeral payments worth £46 million and Sure Start maternity grants worth £45 million, were paid.
In addition over nine million households benefited from a winter fuel payment at an estimated cost of around £2.1 billion.
The Social Fund Commissioner’s report will also be published later today, and I will place a copy of this report in the House Library.