§ 71. Mr. WrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether he will make a statement on the way in which transitional benefits payment is working.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe transitional payments unit is working very well and became fully operational on 14 July when the first payments were issued. Up to 13 December the unit had received 131,438 written inquiries, 71,088 telephone inquiries and 396,776 applications for housing benefit transitional payments. A total of 393,700 inquiry forms, requesting housing benefit details, have been issued to local authorities of which 330,414 have been returned. As soon as these inquiry forms are returned by authorities the unit is processing applications and so far 145,687 cases are receiving payments. The number of cases which have been found to be ineligible is 161,473. The unit has also processed 342 income support transitional payment cases of which 165 have resulted in payments being made.