§ Mr. DenhamTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of the number of households in receipt of benefits in the area covered by Benefits Agency offices serving Southampton in each year since 1989. [18845]
§ Mr. Roger EvansThe administration of income support is a matter for Peter Mathison, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.
285WLetter from Peter Mathison to Mr. John Denham, dated 5 March 1996:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what estimate he has made of the number of households in receipt of benefits in the area covered by Benefits Agency (BA) offices serving Southampton in each year since 1989.The information is not available in the format requested. This is because statistics are collected on the number of benefit recipients and not by household. Information relating to centrally administered benefits such as Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance, Disability Working Allowance, Family Credit, Invalid Care Allowance and Retirement Pension are only collated on a National basis.
Annex A gives details of the number of benefit recipients whose claims are administered by the BA Solent and New Forest District. The District consists of the Southampton, Fareham and New Forest Branch Offices. It should be noted that customers may receive more than one benefit. The information is only available from 1991 when the BA was formed.
I hope you find this reply helpful.
Solent and New Forest District Number and types of benefit recipients from November 1991 to November 1995 November 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 Income Support 44,283 51,394 52,053 50,322 49,577 Sickness Benefit 3,515 3,853 3,609 4,385 — Short term Incapacity Benefit — — — — 1,750 Invalidity Benefit 8,253 9,329 10,342 11,011 — Long term Incapacity Benefit — — — — 10,651 Maternity Allowance 205 210 154 167 180 Severe Disability Allowance 2,729 2,795 2,897 3,057 3,065 Sickness Benefit figures include customers who claimed but were not awarded Sickness Benefit as they had paid insufficient National Insurance contributions, but were awarded National Insurance credits only.
Sickness Benefit was replaced by short term Incapacity Benefit from April 1995.
Invalidity Benefit was replaced by long term Incapacity Benefit from April 1995.
Information has been provided by the BA's Central Data Unit, the data is provisional and may be subject to change.