§ Mr. McNamaraasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what are the numbers and proportions of the total population of Stoke and Hull claiming supplementary benefit and family income supplement, respectively, to the nearest current date for the past five years.
§ Mrs. ChalkerNo local information is available concerning those receiving family income supplement.
A proper comparison between the number on supplementary benefit and the population would require information about the number of claimants' dependants, and such information is not collected on a local basis. Furthermore, information about the number of claimants is not held by local government boundaries but only on the basis of the areas covered by particular local offices. In the case of both Stoke and Hull the areas of the offices serving the cities extend well beyond the respective county district population areas.
With these considerable qualifications, I give the following information:
Recipients of supplementary benefit (thousands) Population* (thousands) Year Stoke Hull Stoke Hull 1975 17.7 29.4 259.2 279.5 1976 17.8 30.9 258.2 278.0 1977 18.1 32.8 257.8 275.4 1978 17.7 32.7 257.2 272.4 1979 17.7 32.0 257.2 272.4 * Office of Population Censuses and Surveys mid-year figures.
§ Mr. McNamaraasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what are the numbers of appeals on supplementary benefit and family income supplement submitted in Stoke, Hull and the United Kingdom as a whole and the number and proportion actually going before the tribunal to the nearest convenient date for the last five years.
§ Mrs. ChalkerI regret that all the information requested is not available for a period of five years. The following table gives the available data of appeals to the Potteries and Hull tribunals together with figures for Great Britain. The Department is not responsible for tribunals in Northern Ireland.
481W
482W
Potteries Hull Great Britain Supplementary Benefit FIS Supplementary Benefit FIS Supplementary Benefit FIS 1975— Appeals Lodged … … … … … — — — — 68,975 1,650 Appeals Heard … … … … … — — — — 32,795 1,283 Proportion of Appeals Heard (per cent.) … … — — — — 47.5 77.8 1976— Appeals Lodged … … … … … — — 752 — 101,112 1,668 Appeals Heard … … … … … — — 429 — 55,125 1,147 Proportion of Appeals Heard (per cent.) … … — — 57.0 — 54.5 68.8 1977— Appeals Lodged … … … … … 1,163 — 918 21 114,734 1,649 Appeals Heard … … … … … 654 — 429 15 62,896 1,047 Proportion of Appeals Heard (per cent.) … … 56.2 — 46.7 71¶4 54.8 63.5 1978— Appeals Lodged … … … … … 1,070 — 1,008 16 115,467 1,693 Appeals Heard … … … … … 617 — 570 10 62,308 973 Proportion of Appeals Heard (per cent.) … … 57.6 — 56.5 62.5 53.9 57.5 1979— Appeals Lodged … … … … … — 16 — 24 — 1,234 Appeals Heard … … … … … — 12 — 17 — 797 Proportion of Appeals Heard (per cent.) … … — 75.0 — 70.8 — 64.6 Notes: (a) The Potteries tribunal hears appeals from the areas covered by the two Stoke local offices and the Newcastle (Staffs) local office, and the Hull tribunal from the area covered by the two Hull local offices. In both cases therefore some of the appeals came from people outside the two named towns but it is not possible to differentiate these. (b) Information about supplementary benefit appeal in 1979 is not yet available.