§ Mr. Greville Jannerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many complaints he has received in the last 12 months concerning delays in returning child benefit books or in paying child benefit to those entitled to it.
§ Mrs. Chalker[pursuant to her reply, 9 April 1981, c. 336]: Information is not readily available in the form requested. However, in the 12 months since 1 April 1980 hon. Members have sent a total of 357 letters to DHSS Ministers, including my right hon. Friend, and direct to the child benefit centre, on all aspects of child benefit: 213 of the letters concerned the payment of benefit and in 134 of these—an average of about 11 a month—the subject was "delay in payment" where the centre was at fault. These figures are very low in relation to the 7.2 million families who receive the benefit and the 21 million order books issued by the centre in the course of a year. If the hon. and learned Member has any particular case in mind, I shall be glad to look into it.
§ Mr. Greville Jannerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many child benefit books he estimates have been mislaid in the Newcastle office during the last 12 months for which records are available.
§ Mrs. Chalker[pursuant to her reply, 9 April 1981, c. 336]: Order books received at the centre are subject to strict security. They are cancelled and their details recorded immediately on receipt. There is no evidence that order books have been mislaid at the centre. If the hon. and learned Member has any information to the contrary, I would be glad to receive and look into it.
§ Mr. Greville Jannerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will take steps to reduce and where possible to obviate the delay in returning child benefit books to those entitled to them.
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§ Mrs. Chalker[pursuant to her reply, 9 April 1981, c. 336]: I am not aware of any general difficulty concerning the return of benefit books to those entitled to them. A number of measures have been introduced to obviate the possibility of delay in payment of child benefit. In particular, payment of increases in child benefit is now generally made by means of additional order books, and where child benefit is to be reduced for some reason this can be done at the local social security office by adjustment of the order book. These procedures have reduced very considerably the need for books to be returned to the child benefit centre.