§ Mr. Ernie Rossasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish a table giving for Scotland the figures on supplementary benefit take-up rates on the same basis as those in the reply to the hon. Member for Brighton, Kemptown (Mr. Bowden) Official Report, 5 April, c. 248.
§ Mr. NewtonI regret that this information is not available in the form requested. In 1979 there were an estimated 90,000 people with an unclaimed entitlement to benefit amounting to £30 million. The small sample sizes on which the figures are based mean that a detailed breakdown would be subject to unacceptably large margins of error. But the rates of take-up and the average weekly level of unclaimed benefit implied by the figures are not significantly different from the estimates for Great Britain given in my answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Brighton, Kemptown (Mr. Bowden) on 5 April 1982.—[ Vol. 21, c.247–50.]