§ Mr. McCuskerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average length of time taken by her Department to issue widows' pension books following the death of the husband.
§ Mr. O'MalleyA widow who is under age 60 or whose husband is not entitled to retirement pension at the date of his death is usually entitled to widow's allowance for the first 26 weeks of widowhood: this can normally be put into payment within a few days of a claim being made. There may be a delay if records are not available locally. Any widow's pension or war widow's pension to which there is entitlement when
NUMBER OF CLAIMS (THOUSANDS) 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 Great Britain 6,076 6,595 6,959 4,506 4,862 5,120 Scotland 825 849 970 637 682 632 Wales 329 369 436 258 341 312 England 4,923 5,377 5,553 3,611 3,839 4,177 Northern 368 408 582 328 356 376 Yorkshire and Humberside 516 531 740 371 496 467 East Midlands and East Anglia 407 460 601 313 394 397 London North 557 650 525 390 351 403 London South 659 752 657 465 441 482 London West 476 521 461 324 328 388 South Western 309 329 323 251 269 367 West Midlands 532 567 553 400 434 495 North West (Manchester) 468 499 487 313 339 408 North West (Merseyside) 629 659 623 455 431 394
NUMBER PER 1,000 OF POPULATION 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 Great Britain 112 122 128 83 89 94 Scotland 159 163 186 122 130 121 Wales 120 135 159 94 124 113 England 106 117 120 78 83 90 Northern 110 124 177 105 114 120 Yorkshire and Humberside 107 110 153 76 101 95 East Midlands and East Anglia 81 91 117 58 72 72 London North 98 111 95 69 66 75 London South London West Southwestern 82 87 84 60 64 87 West Midlands 103 111 107 77 84 96 North West (Manchester) 162 172 164 116 117 122 North West (Merseyside) Notes:
(1) The number of claims per 1,000 of population does not bear any relation to the number of claimants per 1,000 as one person could have made more than one claim during the 12-month period.
(2) The number of claims is based on D.H.S.S. administrative regions which do not precisely coincide with the standard regions used for population estimates.
(3) The 12 months period ends in November each year.