HC Deb 15 October 2002 vol 390 c640W
Mrs. Irene Adams

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his estimate is of the number of pensioners eligible for benefits and entitlements in(a) Paisley, North, (b) Scotland and (c) the UK. [73705]

Mr. McCartney

Such information as is available is shown in the table below. Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit are not available at constituency level.

Table 1: Figures for Paisley North, Scotland and Great Britain.
Benefit Total recipients
Paisley North Scotland GB
State Pensions 11,200 911,000 11,147,400
Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) 3,000 182,700 1,746,200
Attendance Allowance (AA) 1,700 129,200 1,291,400
Winter Fuel Payment (WFP) 12,430 996,420 11,201,895
Free TV licences (entitlement) 5,600 500,100 4,415,700
Council Tax Benefit N/A 531,000 4,602,000
Housing Benefit N/A 450,000 3,813,000

Sources:

MIG—Income Support Quarterly Statistical Enquiry, May 2002 State Pensions—Figures taken from a 5 per cent. sample from the Pensions Strategy Computer System at 30 March 2002.

WFP—Figures from a 100 per cent. sample from the Winter Fuel Payment 2001/2002 Exercise

Free TV Licence—Figures taken from a 5 per cent. sample from the Client Group analysis of the population over state pension age as at 30th November 2001.

Attendance Allowance—Figures from a 5 per cent. sample from the AA/DLA computer system as at February 2002

Housing Benefit/Council Tax Benefit—Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System Quarterly 100 per cent. caseload stock count taken in May 2002