To ask the Minister for Social Development to detail the number of people who have (i) applied for; and (ii) been awarded a short term advance of benefit, since April 2013, broken down by constituency.

The information requested is not available. Northern Ireland legislation does not currently provide for Short Term Benefit Advances as this is included in the Welfare Reform Bill. However, under the existing Discretionary Social Fund Scheme Crisis Loan alignment payments, which will be replaced by Short Term Benefit Advances, are made to people awaiting their first payment of benefit, which is paid in arrears. Crisis Loan payments made in these circumstances are intended to cover the day to day living expenses until the first benefit payday, following which full payment of benefit can be made. The number of Crisis Loan alignment payments applied for and awarded from April 2013 until 30 June 2014, broken down by constituency is shown in the Table below:

* Figures rounded to the nearest 10, Total may not sum due to roundings.

** Where it was not possible to allocate Applications/awards to a Constituency they were classified as Unknown.

*** The period ending 30/06/2014 is the most up to date information available.

The information provided is an Official Statistic. The production of all such statistics is governed by the Principles and Protocols of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. This is enforced by the UK Statistics Authority.