§ Dr. David ClarkTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many retirement pensioners in South Shields are in receipt of housing benefit transitional payments.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe information requested is not available. However, once the majority of applications have 389W been processed the transitional payments unit will be able to give details of the number of recipients in certain groups within the area of individual local authorities but not by individual constituencies.
§ Dr. David ClarkTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the number of retirement pensioners in South Shields who were in receipt of(a) supplementary benefit for the three months prior to April and (b) income support for the period April to July.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe constituency of South Shields is covered by the local office at South Shields but the boundaries are not conterminous.
The information for the nearest available dates is as follows:
Nearest date Number Supplementary benefit (people of pensionable age) 17 November 1987 4,864 Income support (people aged 60 and over) 31 May 1988 4,553 The source is a 100 per cent. of cases in action. These figures may, however, overstate the number of people receiving supplementary benefit. The footnote to the reply given to the hon. Member for Sedgefield (Mr. Blair) on 12 December 1988, at columns 455–56 refers.
§ Dr. David ClarkTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many retirement pensioners in South Shields were in receipt of(a) standard and certificated housing benefit for the three months preceding April, excluding the housing benefit transitional arrangements, and (b) housing benefit for the period between April and July.
§ Mr. Peter LloydI regret that the information requested is not available.