§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many persons received payments of each of the benefits referred to in clause 1 of the Social Security (No. 2) Bill in the last year for which figures are available.
§ Mrs. ChalkerThe estimated numbers of recipients of the benefits at the latest dates available are as follows
Unemployment benefit: 467,000 at November 1979.Sickness benefit: 472,000 at June 1978.Injury benefit: 45,000 at June 1978.Invalidity benefit: 557,000 at June 1978.Maternity allowance: 92,000 at March 1978.I shall let the hon. Member have the numbers receiving increases of benefit for adult dependents, unemployability supplement and invalidity allowance, as well as the numbers receiving unemployment and sickness benefit who are over pension age, as soon as possible.
It is esimated that approximately 1.8 million people received unemployment benefit during 1979. 6.68 million people received sickness benefit, injury benefit or invalidity benefit or a mixture of these benefits during the year ending June 1978. 277,000 awards of maternity allowance were made in the year ending March 1978, but it is not known how many women received the benefit during the course of the year. Some people will have received more than one benefit in the course of the year.