HC Deb 06 March 1989 vol 148 cc446-7W
27. Mr. Allen McKay

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security in how many cases, of which he ha; knowledge, those aged 16 and 17 years have ceased to receive income support without taking up a job or employment training at the most recent date.

Mr. Scott

I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Members for Kilmarnock and Loudoun (Mr. McKelvey) and for Paisley, North (Mr. Adams) earlier today.

41. Mr. Dykes

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he has any plans to seek to improve the level o public comprehension of the income support system.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

There are already a number of indications that the public are finding the new income support scheme much simpler to understand. However, we are continuing to monitor and we will seek to take action to improve comprehension should it become necessary.

Mr. Dobson

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will give the number of income support recipients among(a) pensioners, (b) unemployed (c) long-term sick or people with disabilities and (d) single parents who will receive no increase in their benefits, due to still getting transitional addition payments, in each year from 1989–90 to 1999–2000, and beyond.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

Precise information is not available. Estimated numbers derived from the technical annex to the White Paper "Reform of Social Security" (Cmnd. 9691) for 1989–90 and 1990–91 are in the table. No estimates are available beyond these dates; the numbers involved are expected to be tiny.

1989–90 1990–91
Pensioners 200,000 50,000
Unemployed 210,000 70,000
Long-term sick or disabled 10,000 10,000
Lone Parents 40,000 10,000

Mr. Dobson

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will give the latest figures for the number of income support recipients awarded transitional additions for 1988–89 and the number who will still be receiving transitional additions in 1989–90.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

Precise information is not available. It is estimated that around 1.4 million claimants were awarded income support transitional additions in April 1988, and that some 600,000 will continue to receive them following the April 1989 uprating.

Mr. Dobson

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will provide a breakdown of the number of transitional addition payments for 1989–90 by Department of Social Security region, and for Greater London.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

Statistics on income support transitional protection are obtained through the annual statistical inquiries which follow uprating exercises and are based on an examination of 1 per cent. of cases in receipt of benefit. The 1989 inquiry will be held in May and the information from this is necessarily not yet available.

Information on housing benefit transitional payments will become available later this year, but this will be on the basis of local authority areas and not social security regions.

Mr. Darling

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will indicate the number of claimants in receipt of income support for each of the following categories (1) unemployed claimants, (2) claimants not required to register for work, (3) pensioners and (4) young people aged 16 to 18 years; and if he will indicate the number of claimants in receipt of each premium within each of the above categories.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

The latest available information is as follows:

  1. 1. 1,559,000
  2. 2. 1,186,000
  3. 3. 1,671,000
  4. 4. 137,000 (estimated figures for age 16 to 18 inclusive).

Number of claimants receiving Supplementary Benefit or Income Support: 1979 to 1988
Thousands
Social Security Region 1 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 2 1988
North Eastern 475 530 636 717 735 780 789 809 793 694
London North 466 520 627 706 734 779 791 812 803 655
London South 432 471 548 623 645 683 699 722 703 574
Wales and South Western 395 427 500 560 574 617 625 637 618 532
Midlands 457 520 648 747 777 819 825 848 826 694
North Western 450 496 594 674 697 735 744 765 753 671
Scotland 294 320 385 439 461 492 501 549 548 498
TOTAL 2,969 3,284 3,938 4,466 4,623 4,905 4,974 5,142 5,044 4,318
INDEX (using 1982 as the base year) 66 73 88 100 103 110 111 115 113 97
1 Figures quoted for 1979 to 1981 are reworked data.
2 Figures for 1988 are provisional and subject to amendment.

Sources: November/December Quarterly Count of cases in action, which include a number of cases where benefit payment has ceased but other action is continuing. The data from the Annual Statistical Inquiry used in the reply on 1 February cannot be reworked in the way requested.