RECORD MONTH

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 22, 26 July 1945, Page 6

RECORD MONTH

LOANS TO SERVICEMEN

TOTAL TO DATE £8,626,868

June was another record month for loan authorisations to ex-service men and women, says the monthir statistical review issued by the Rehabilitation Department. During June loans totalled P£769,p0, beating the previous month's record total by £52,000. a his brought the total loan authorisations made to date to £8,626,868, of which £8,161,365 was for ex-scryicemen returned from overseas and £5113 tor returned servicewomen. Demobilised home service personnel had, up to the end of June, been advanced £359,000, merchant seamen £ 31,892, and widows and dependants of deceased servicemen £69,492. ' During June 954 ex-service men and women were assisted by way ■of rehabilitation loans, bringing the total ol those so assisted to 13,616, including, apart from merchant seamen, 12,359 who had returned from service overseas. ■.■'"', Another peak month, in housing loans resulted in 321 such authorisations being made, to the value of £368,395; of these 102 (£143,521) were for the erection of houses and 219 (£224,874) -were for the purchase of existing dwellings. Up to the end of June 3699 ex-service men and women had been . advanced housing loans totalling £4,057,199. Included in this total were 1873 interestfree supplementary loans valued at £297,951. of which 203 (£30,846) were authorised during the month. These supplementary loans are intended to bridge the gap between today's values and those obtaining pre-war-. FINANCE FOR FARMS. Loans to assist ex-servicemen on to the land on farms of their own totalled 83 (£296,695) for June, which made the total until the end of that month 955, to a value of £3,195,847. There was an increase of 10 in loans over the previous month's figure. Of those assisted to the end of that month 927 were returned servicemen, 25 were home servicemen, 2 were merchant seamen, and 1 a dependant of a deceased serviceman. In June a further 106 ex-servicemen were authorised loans to set up in business, four more than the previous month's total. The value of the loans for this purpose for June was £64,207, bringing the total value until the end of that month to £728,078, authorised for 1448 returned servicemen, 2 returnedi servicewomen, 144 home servicemen, 3 merchant seamen, and 3 deceased servicemen's dependants. A further 412 interest-free loans for the purchase of furniture were authorised, involving £38,128 and including advances for 377 returned men and one returned woman. This brought the total amount to £619,148, representing advances to 6781 ex-service men and women. With another 23 interest-free loans to enable ex-service men and women to purchase tools of trade at a cost of £838, the total number of such loans reached 501, valued at £15,227. In addition, nine smaller advances for miscellaneous purposes amounting to £1017 were made, there being 80 exservice men and women who until th£ end of June had received that assistance, representing an expenditure of £11.369.