§ Mr. McKelveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many claimants have applied for transitional payment benefit in(a) Kilmarnock; (b) Ayrshire and (c) Scotland as a whole; how many in these classifications have had their benefit calculated; and how many are in receipt of the benefit.
§ Mr. GalbraithTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people in the constituency of Strathkelvin and Bearsden have applied for housing
830Wbenefit transitional payments; and what is his estimate of the number who will qualify and when he expects them to be paid.
§ Mr. McAllionTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what is the average waiting time for claimants receiving transitional payments in his Department's Dundee, East and Dundee, West offices;
(2) how many applications for transitional payments have been made at his Department's Dundee, East and Dundee, West offices; how many of these have been processed; and how many payments have been paid.
§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people have applied for transitional payment benefit in(a) Greenock and Port Glasgow, (b) the Strathclyde region and (c) Scotland as a whole; how many in these have had their benefit assessed; and how many are now in receipt of such benefit.
§ Mr. Scott[holding answers 14 July, 18 July and 20 July 1988]: Information in the form requested is not available. In due course, statistics will be collected within the transitional payments unit to determine the number of applications received, the number of payments made and the time taken to process applications on a national basis, but they are unlikely to be available on either a constituency or district basis. It is not possible to estimate in advance the number of cases in which payments will be made as applications are still being received. Except for urgent cases, they are being processed in the order in which they were received and the date of payment will therefore depend upon the date of receipt at the transitional payments unit.
§ Mr. WinnickTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many applications have now been received by his Department's unit in Glasgow regarding transitional payments; how many have been duly processed and payments made; and when he expects the remainder of the applications to be processed and payment made.
§ Mr. Scott[holding answer 22 July 1988]: As planned, the transitional payments unit became fully operational 831W this month, making the first housing benefit transitional payments on Thursday 14 July. Up to 25 July, the unit had received 41,024 written inquiries, 20,951 telephone inquiries and 119,143 applications for transitional payments. Already, 47,580 inquiry forms, to obtain the information necessary to assess eligibility for payment, have been sent out to local authorities. In the 7,839 cases where they have been returned, 3,296 assessments have been made. 1,624 applicants were found to be ineligible for payment and in the other 1,604 cases, applicants have been notified of their award and 68 payments have been made. In addition, regular payments are being made in respect of income support transitional payments. Depending upon the rate and volume of applications received we expect all applications to be processed by October.