Supplementary Benefit (Administration) (Hansard, 11 April 1978)

§ Mr. Deakins

The text and enclosures are as follows:

380W

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & SOCIAL SECURITY

Alexander Fleming House, Elephant & Castle, London SE1 6BY

Telephone 01–407 5522

From the Joint Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Mr. Nigel Lawson MP

17 February 1978

Dear Mr. Lawson,

Further to my reply to your Question on 24 January, about staff employed in paying supplementary benefit, I enclose a table setting out, within the limits of available records, the information requested.

The staffing figures derive mainly from the published Annual Reports, especially for the more distant past, and you will see from the footnotes to the table that the form in which figures have been given has varied during the past 32 years. The changes in presentation have generally followed changes in the organisation of Departments: in 1948, the National Assistance Board succeeded the Assistance Board, and in 1966 the Ministry of Social Security (subsequently the Department of Health and Social Security) succeeded the National Assistance Board and the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance. I regret that these changes in presentation prevent a completely consistent comparison but the expense of the further research needed to attempt something more exact would not be justified. However, it has been possible to give some staff figures for the end of each year even though they are not strictly comparable. End of year figures are given because they were the figures available for the earlier years (we now usually give average yearly figures).

There is an important reservation which I should like to stress about the interpretation of this information, namely that the number of recipients is only one of the factors affecting the number of staff needed to deal with the work arising from claims to supplementary benefit. Other relevant factors include:

(a) the increase in the number of cases generating above average activity—mainly the unemployed and one parent families. For example, in 1955 there were 54,000 unemployed and 55,000 one parent families out of 1,726,000 recipients, (about six per cent), whilst in 1976 there were 654,000 and 303,000 respectively, out of 2,940,000 recipients (about 32 per cent).
(b) the increase in the number of claims, e.g., in 1955 there were 1,830,000 whilst in 1976 there were 5,743,000—more than three times as many.
(c) the greater demand for single "exceptional needs" payments e.g., in 1955 there were 147,493 and in 1976 1,114,103 or nearly eight times more.
(d) more frequent recalculations of the amounts of benefit payable e.g., because of benefit and pension increases now at least annually, changes in rents and rates, again at least annually and sometimes more frequently.
(e) the introduction of new benefits which have to be considered in calculating or paying supplementary benefit, e.g., since 1970 there have been invalidity benefit, earnings related supplements to sickness and unemployment benefits, old person's retirement pensions, non contributory invalidity pension, child interim benefit (now child benefit increases), rent rebates etc.
(f) greater complexity, partly because of some matters previously mentioned and also for other reasons e.g., the criteria governing the payment of exceptional circumstances

RATIO OF STAFF TO RECIPIENTS OF NATIONAL ASSISTANCE/SUPPLEMENTARY BENEFITS
		Number of recipients at the end of each year in thousands	Number of staff	Ratio of staff to 10,000 receipients
1945	…	1,503	8,586 (Note 3)	57
1946	…	629 (Note 1)	9,009 (Note 3)	143
1947	…	993 (Note 1: Note 2)	8,112 (Note 3)	82
1948	…	1,375 (Note 2)	7,858 (Note 4)	57
1949	…	1,499 (Note 2)	7,779 (Note 4)	52
1950	…	1,674 (Note 2)	8,102 (Note 4)	48
1951	…	1,714 (Note 2)	8,536 (Note 4)	50
1952	…	1,854 (Note 2)	8,851 (Note 4)	48
1953	…	1,918 (Note 2)	9,147 (Note 4)	48
1954	…	1,936 (Note 2)	9,592 (Note 4)	50
1955	…	1,726 (Note 2)	9,570 (Note 4)	55
1956	…	1,742 (Note 2)	9,091 (Note 4)	52
1957	…	1,805 (Note 2)	9,417 (Note 4)	52
1958	…	1,725 (Note 2)	9,463 (Note 4)	55
1959	…	1,824 (Note 2)	9,809 (Note 4)	54
1960	…	1,903 (Note 2)	10,412 (Note 4)	55
1961	…	1,881 (Note 2)	10,596 (Note 4)	56
1962	…	2,036 (Note 2)	11,040 (Note 4)	54
1963	…	1,994 (Note 2)	12,468 (Note 4)	63
1964	…	1,981 (Note 2)	12,660 (Note 4)	64
1965	…	2,012 (Note 2)	13,002 (Note 4)	65
1966	…	2,495	12,468 (Note 5: Note 6)	50
1967	…	2,559	15,314 (Note 5)	60
1968	…	2,637	16,367 (Note 5)	62
1969	…	2,688	16,967 (Note 5)	63
1970	…	2,738	17,790 (Note 5)	65
1971	…	2,909	18,360 (Note 5)	63
1972	…	2,911	19,004 (Note 5)	65
1973	…	2,675	23,994 (Note 5: Note 7)	90
1974	…	2,680	24,360 (Note 5: Note 8)	91
1975	…	2,793	26,243 (Note 5: Note 8)	94
1976	…	2,940	29,983 (Note 5)	102
1977	…	3,108 (Note 9)	31,840 (Note 5)	102
Notes:
1. The period 1946–47 was one of upheaval. An increase in the level of Contributory Old Age Pensions substantially reduced the number of supplementation cases and non-contributory Old Age Pensions work was taken on.
2. Figures for 1947–65 include non-contributory Old Age Pensions recipients, the staffing content for which cannot be isolated.
3. 1945–47 staffing figures include local and regional offices and headquarters.
4. 1948–65 staffing figures include local and regional offices only and are staff in post on a given date.
5. Since 1966 regional office and headquarters staffing figures have not shown their Supplementary Benefit element separately. Staffing figures from 1966 are therefore local offices only. These are complement figures on a given date (i.e. the number of posts authorised) not the number of staff actually in post which would be rather lower.
6. The fall in ratio here is probably due to the fact that at that time the complement had not fully expanded to meet the impact of new work arising from the 1966 Supplementary Benefits Act.
7. The 1973 figures reflect increases in staff on account of additional operational pressure and complication.
8. In the period 1975–76 an increase of 2,400 permanent posts was made to the complement to reduce the dependence on the use the casual staff and overtime for special tasks such as the annual benefits increase.
9. This figure is an estimate only since final figures are not yet available.

382W

additions to weekly benefit payments have become much more detailed.

(g) the growth in challenges to decisions e.g., in 1955 14,316 appeals were heard and in 1976 55,125.

The years quoted were not selected to give a misleading picture of developments—1955 is the year from which some of the information became available whilst 1976 is the last year for which there are comparable figures.

Your sincerely,

Eric Deakins.

383W

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & SOCIAL SECURITY

Alexander Fleming House, Elephant & Castle, London SE1 6BY

Telephone 01–407 5522

From the Joint Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

PO(PS-HSS) 1040/10

Mr Nigel Lawson MP

4 April 1978

Dear Mr. Lawson,

Thank you for your further letter of 21 February regarding the numbers of staff employed in paying supplementary benefits.

In my earlier reply to you I gave examples of factors, other than numbers of recipients, which affected the number of staff needed to deal with the work arising from claims to supplementary benefit. Some of these factors related to the work content rather than the numbers of individual tasks and as such they have not always been reflected in the local office work statistics on which our complements are based. A consequence has been that the continuing pressures arising from these factors have not been fully compensated for in the staffing provision made.

During the 1972/73 period, in addition to posts issued for workload increases, 2,500 posts were provided in belated recognition of these local office pressures which by then had reached a critical level. In part also the 2,500 were seen as contributing to a reduction in our dependence on the use of casual staff and overtime, a decasualisation process which, as you will have seen from the notes to the table accompanying my earlier reply, was continued in 1975–76.

Yours sincerely,

Eric Deakins.