§ 7. Mr. Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list for Scotland for each of the years 1981–82, 1982–83 and 1983–84 (a) the amount paid out in social security benefits, broken down by benefit type and (b) the percentage of the Scottish population in receipt of each type of benefit; and if he will estimate the value of unclaimed supplementary benefit in Scotland in 1983.
§ Mr. WhitneyInformation is not available in the form requested. However, some indications of social security expenditure in Scotland, together with population, unemployment and sickness statistics, are given in "Regional Trends", published annually by HMSO. Certain other information about numbers of beneficiaries in Scotland is given in "Social Security Statistics", also published annually by HMSO.
Information about supplementary benefit take-up for 1983 is not yet available. However, it is estimated that in 1981 the annual amount of unclaimed supplementary benefit in Scotland was about £50 million.