Government refuses loans to 66,300 low-income families in the East of England

8.05.05pm GMT Sun 1st Feb 2009

66,300 pensioners and families in the East of England 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 more than 23% last year to 183,070. The figures come at a time when the Government is encouraging banks to increase lending.

April Pond, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman for Broadland 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 Norfolk 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."