§ Mr. Tom Coxasked the Paymaster General (1) what is the number of (a) male and (b) female disabled people who have been interviewed by his officials in the Tooting constituency as part of the availability for work scheme;
(2) what is the number of people over the age of 50 years who have been interviewed by his officials in the Tooting constituency as part of the availability for work test;
(3) what has been the number of people interviewed by his officials in the Tooting constituency as part of the project to see which people are available for work;
(4) what has been the number of people living in the Tooting constituency who have been refused benefit after being interviewed by his officials under his availability for work test.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeTooting A and B unemployment benefit offices took part in the experimental testing of the availability for work of new claimants and also those256W existing claimants over the age of 50 years who attend quarterly. The Tooting A office was a control for the experiment carried out in Tooting B office.
The information collected in the experiment is not available in the form requested. In the new claims experiment a total of 2,139 people completed questionnaires. Only in those cases where doubts arose about availability for work were interviews carried out but we do not keep a separate total of the number of interviews.
Similarly, we did not collect separate information about the numbers of disabled people involved.
The number of people who were subsequently disallowed benefit by the independent adjudication authorities on availability grounds was 44.
The experiment with those over the age of 50 years who attend quarterly is not yet complete but 338 questionnaires have been issued. The claim of one claimant in receipt of benefit has been disallowed and the crediting of a further 40 claimants in receipt of national insurance credits only, have been disallowed.