§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many of those who so far have had their application for family income supplement rejected on grounds that they were not in full-time employment were one-parent families.
§ Mr. Spearingasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what estimate he has made of the number of officers in his Department who are expected to qualify for family income supplement.
§ Mr. McNamaraasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the number of families he has estimated in the city of Hull as being eligible to qualify for family incomes supplement; how many families have applied; and what is the average amount granted to each family.
§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many claims for the family income supplement have been received, granted and rejected; and what has been the average supplement awarded for each week since 3rd May.
§ Mr. Marksasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the number of applicants for family income supplement at the latest available date; and how many had been granted.
§ Mr. DeanUp to 3rd August, 61,695 claims for family income supplement had been received; of the decisions given by that date, 25,318 were favourable and 25,179 were unfavourable. In addition I estimate that over 20,000 families on supplementary benefit but wage-stopped will have benefited automatically as a result of the Family Income Supplement Scheme. A week-by-week average award figure is not available; my right hon. Friend gave the hon. Member for Oldham, West (Mr. Meacher) an esti410W mate of the overall average on 13th July.—[Vol. 821, c. 191–4.]
§ Dame Joan Vickersasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many industrial and non-industrial civil servants have applied for Family Income Supplement.
§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many civil servants in central government Departments have so far claimed a family income supplement; how many of these claims have been successful; and how many such persons are estimated in total to be eligible for this benefit.
§ Mr. DeanI reget this information is not available. The civil servants employed in central Government Departments—including those employed in my own Department—are of course entitled to make a claim for family income supplement at any of the offices throughout the country which are dealing with claims to this benefit from members of the public. In order to preserve confidentiality of claims, the staff working in my Department have been informed that they may, if they wish, send their claims direct to the office at Blackpool which is already accepting claims from members of the public over an area of the North-West.
§ Mr. Dalyellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps he is taking to ensure that the staff in the local offices are fully cognisant with the family income supplement scheme; and what study he has made of the availability of family income supplement forms.
§ Mr. DeanInstructions have been issued to all local social security officers. As regards the second part of the Question, I have made arrangements for these forms to be available in all local social security offices and post offices and the operation of these arrangements is being carefully watched.