FEARS have been raised that thousands of pounds, earmarked for the most vulnerable people in the area, might not be going to those people most in need.

Exceptional Hardship Payments (EHPs) can be paid to the area's most needy can help stop desperate housing benefit claimants becoming homeless but not all authorities are stumping up the cash they should be.

Campaigners nationally have reacted angrily to the news that some authorities have redirected the funds not used into the council coffers. Spurred on by a Government report, which revealed that just ten per cent of funds available to authorities was being spent, one local woman set about finding out how Lancaster Council was performing... she ran up against a brick wall.

Diana Garner wrote to the council's chief revenues officer, Richard Mason, to inquire how the cash was distributed locally and how much had been used and was shocked by what she was told.

"Basically it seems they are not prepared to tell me anything apart from the fact that EHPs are discretionary and that it is Mr Mason who decides who gets what.

Ms Garner asked how much of the cash allotted to the authority had been spent and was told she could not have that information. "I wasn't asking for details about individual claimants, just the total amount but I was told that I couldn't have that information because it wasn't in the public domain and when I asked under what authority I was given no answer."

Ms Garner claims she has no reason to suspect that the city council was not using any of its available EHP cash properly but admitted to being "very concerned" when the simple information she requested was not given to her.

"There are many vulnerable people in the area who could use that cash who might not be getting it," she explained, "as a member of the public I believe I have a right to ask . It's not as if it is the council's cash; it's given to them specifically for use by these needy people in the area."

Ms Garner became so frustrated that she contacted a number of councillors, including Paul Woodruff and Carol Broad, but their inquiries too have failed to turn up the information she requires.

When reporters from The Citizen asked for the facts and figures they were told that the information would now be presented in a report to a revenues sub-committee on June 12.

"If that's the case why can't they tell us right now," asked Ms Garner, "it shouldn't have to take this kind of pressure to force a public servant into revealing what is essentially public information - after all it's public money and they are public employees."