§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people are currently employed to deal with supplementary benefit claims (a) in London and (b) elsewhere; how many claims are currently being processed; what is the ratio of staff to claims; and if he will give the comparable figures for May 1979.
§ Mr. Newton[pursuant to his reply, 23 June 1982, c. 122.]: It is misleading simply to compare the numbers of staff at any particular time with the numbers of claims. As my predecessor explained in her reply to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr. Rooker) on 5 March 1982—[Vol. 19, c. 276–78.]—work loads vary considerably by type and duration of claim and the action which has to be taken. All these factors vary over time and as a result of legislative, policy and procedural changes.
Information on staffing levels is not available in precisely the form requested. The number of staff currently employed on supplementary benefit work is not available, but the following figues show the number allocated to deal with supplementary benefit claims in May 1979 and at the latest available date.
1979 Great Britain (i) State benefits (ii) Earnings (iii) Maintenance (iv) Other items Total number of families with head under pension age (a) One-parent families headed by a woman 360,000 330,000 [50,000] [10,000] 740,000 (b) One-parent families headed by a man [30,000] 70,000 — — 100,000 (c) Two-parent families 270,000 5,960,000 — [30,000] 6,260,000 Notes:
1. These broad estimates are based on a Department of Health and Social Security analysis of income and other information recorded by respondents to the 1979 family expenditure survey. They are subject to statistical error; those in brackets are subject to very considerable proportionate error.
2. The estimates relate to the population living in private households in Great Britain. Families and other people living in institutions are not included in the family expenditure survey.
3. The figures are based on the normal employment of the head of the family. For example, where the head of the family had been off work due to sickness or unemployment for less than three months at the time of the survey, he or she is classified according to the income received when working.
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May 1979 April 1982 (a) London 8,203 9,529 (b) Elsewhere 21,901 24,169 The latest available information on claims received is for the four-week period ending on 8 June 1982. The following table gives the numbers for this period and the corresponding four-week period in 1979.
Four weeks ending 12 June 1979 Four weeks ending 8 June 1982 (a) London 80,270 122,087 (b) Elsewhere 288,851 271,089 It may be helpful to the hon. Lady to have also the latest available figures for the live load of supplementary benefit cases, divided in the same way, which are as follows:
May 1979 April 1982 (a) London 723,047 936,096 (b) Elsewhere 2,157,042 2,954,069 Note:
The figures for London refer to the DHSS London regions—three in 1979, two from April 1982. There has been a reorganisation of nearly all the geographical boundaries of the DHSS regions between 1979 and 1982, and in the London regions the net result has been an expansion of the total areas covered. Any comparison of the figures across time should therefore be treated with caution.