§ Mr. McNamaraasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what was the total number of students registered at the Oriel and Brittania House branches of his Department in Hull seeking supplementary benefit in the months of July, August and September, respectively;
(2) how long it took to process each student applicant of supplementary benefit at the Hull branch of his Department for the months of July, August and September, respectively;
(3) whether he will assign further staff to work on student applications for supplementary benefit at the two Hull offices of his Department;
(4) what was the average number of staff employed by his Department in assessing student applications for supplementary benefit at the Hull offices of his Department for the months of July, August and September, respectively.
§ Mr. LyellThe table sets out the total number of supplementary benefit claims received from students at the Oriel and Brittania house local offices in the months of July, August and September. Records are not kept of the time taken to process each claim. However, the estimated average processing times for student claims during the months concerned were 12 working days at Brittania house and 13.5 working days at Oriel house.
866W
Student claims received Hull (Oriel house) Hull (Brittania house) July 400 1.091 August 46 221 September 70 184 Total 516 1,496 The staff resources allocated to the Department's Hull offices include an element for assessing students' claims but no records are kept of the number of staff employed on the work. There are no specific plans to increase the number of staff dealing with these claims which is largely of a seasonal nature.