Government refuses loans to 68440 low-income families and pensioners in Yorkshire and the Humber - Liberal Democrats

12.19.01pm GMT Fri 30th Jan 2009

68440 pensioners and families in Yorkshire and the Humber had their application for a crisis loan turned down by the Government last year, figures highlighted by the Liberal Democrats have revealed.

Applications for the loans, aimed at low-income families and pensioners unable to get credit elsewhere, rose by 20% last year to 173, 670. The figures come at a time when the Government is encouraging banks to increase lending.

Madeleine Kirk, Prospective Liberal Democrat MP for York Outer, said, "People who apply for crisis loans are desperate and have nowhere else to turn, yet too often they get turned away when they should be getting help.

"It is very worrying that with the recession hitting Yorkshire and the Humber hard, even more people will turn to the Government for help. Yet the evidence for the past year is that more and more people will be turned away by Government run Job Centre Plus.

"At a time when the Government is demanding that the banks lend more, here we have the Government itself doing the opposite.

"The Government has got to practice what it preaches to the banks and make more cash available to families through these loans."