The reforms to the Social Fund in 2013 allowed local authorities in England and the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales to deliver their own local provision for people who are in need of urgent help. The Department for Work and Pension's (DWP) 2014 review found that local authorities delivered support more effectively than the previous provision and that councils are best placed to decide how to target flexible help to support local welfare needs. The Government has no further plans to review provision.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4014", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Reading West"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Alok Sharma"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-05-02", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-05-02T09:49:11.72Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "29"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-04-25", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Welfare Assistance Schemes"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of Local Welfare Assistance Schemes; and if will he make a statement.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/163", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "East Ham"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Stephen Timms"} ], "uin" : "247562"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1123207", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department for Work and Pensions"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1123207/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
Local authorities report how much they have spent on local welfare assistance schemes in their annual Revenue Outturn returns to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. This can be found in line 465 in the individual local authority data outturn table \u2018RO6\u2019 for each year up to the latest for 2017-18 at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing<\/a><\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4014", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Reading West"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Alok Sharma"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-05-02", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-05-02T09:42:24.453Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "29"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-04-25", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Welfare Assistance Schemes"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much has been spent on Local Welfare Assistance Schemes in each of the last nine years.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/163", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "East Ham"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Stephen Timms"} ], "uin" : "247563"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 2, "type" : "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"} }