§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) how many people in receipt of unemployment benefit sign on by post in each travel-to-work area in England; [38572]
(2) how many unemployed people in England in receipt of benefit in each travel-to-work area in England live more than six miles from their nearest Employment Service office; [38567]
(3) which categories of unemployed claimant are given the option of signing on by post. [38571]
§ Mr. ForthResponsibility for the subject of the questions has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Mr. Gordon Prentice, dated 31 October 1995:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions about signing procedures and travel-to-work areas.
The statistics you requested on the number of people claiming benefit and living more than six miles from their nearest Employment Service Jobcentre (ESJ) are not available for travel to work areas. Similarly, no statistics are kept on the number of these people who are postal claimants. We do, however, record figures for the numbers of people claiming by post for each of the ES's seven English regions.
146WIn September, the latest month for which figures are available, they were:
Employment service region Number of postal claimants Northern 4,466 Yorkshire and Humberside 12,282 East Midlands and Eastern 15,624 London and South East 31,819 South West 15,804 West Midlands 4,330 North West 4,468 The concession for claiming benefit by post is that someone must live more than six miles by ordinary road from their nearest ESJ. This rule can, at the local office manager's discretion, be waived in cases which would involve hardship. Clients who are disabled and those with such inadequate transport facilities that they would be absent from home for more than four hours, are therefore also offered the postal signing facility.
I hope this is helpful.