Benefits (Hansard, 22 July 1993)

§ Mr. Milburn
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the regional expenditure on(a) retirement pensions, (b) sickness and invalidity benefits, (c) housing benefits, (d) unemployment benefit, (e) family credit, (f) income support, (g) social fund and (h) child benefit as (i) a total and (ii) per head for each of the last five years for which figures are avaialble.

§ Mr. Scott
Information is not available in the form requested. Such information as is available has been placed in the Library.

§ Mr. Milburn
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the value of unclaimed(a) income support, (b) housing benefit, (c) family credit and (d) invalidity benefit, giving the estimated number of 396W Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member with such information as is available and a copy will be placed in the Library.
Letter from Michael Bichard to Dr. Norman Godman, dated 21 July 1993:
As Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency it is my responsibility to answer questions about relevant operational matters. I am therefore replying to your recent Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security asking how many and what percentage of single parents had social security payments as their main source of income in (a) 1979 and (b) 1991 in (i) Strathclyde and (ii) Scotland as a whole.
The complete range of information requested is not available as statistics that reflect the number of single parents in receipt of each Social Security benefit are not routinely collected. It is also likely that many of the relevant records will have been routinely destroyed since 1979.
Below I have given the number of single parents in Scotland who were in receipt of Supplementary Benefit in 1979 and Income Support in 1991.
This information is obtained from an annual statistical sampling exercise. It is not possible to provide figures separately for Strathclyde.
(1) Single parents in Scotland in receipt of Supplementary Benefit at November 1979–34,000

(2) Single parents in Scotland in receipt of Income Support at May 1991–102,000
I hope you find this reply helpful. A copy of this letter will appear in the Official Report and a copy will also be placed in the Library.

§ Mr. Milburn
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is(a) the number of lone parents, (b) the number of income support claimants who are lone parents and (c) the proportion of income support claimants who are lone parents in each region.

§ Mr. Burt
The information requested is in the table.
non-claimants involved; and the proportion of each benefit entitlement unclaimed, for each of the last three years for which figures are available.

§ Mr. Burt
Estimates of the take-up of income support, family credit and the new unified housing benefit were published in "Income Related Benefit Estimates of Take-up in 1989" in January this year. Take-up estimates for the income-related benefits that were available before the 1988 benefit reforms are for 1985 and 1987 and are provided in Social Security Statistics 1990 (Table 48) and Social Security Statistics 1991 (Table H.5) respectively. Copies of these publications are in the Library.
Information for invalidity benefit is not available.