§ Mr. Stonehouseasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will publish in the Official Report a table showing the numbers of persons in England in receipt of national assistance and supplementary benefits for the years 1948, 1951, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1975, detailing those figures under the headings: (1) retirement pensioners and national insurance widows 60 years of age and over, (2) others over pension age, (3) unemployed with national insurance benefit, (4) unemployed without national insurance benefit, (5) sick and disabled with national insurance benefit, (6) sick and disabled without national insurance benefit, (7) women under 60 years of age with dependent children, (8) national insurance widows under 60 years of age, (9) others, (10) total persons 81W receiving supplementary benefit (11) total number of claimants and dependants, and (12) claimants and dependants as a percentage of the English population.
§ Mr. O'MalleyInformation about the total number of claimants and dependants
PERSONS IN ENGLAND IN RECEIPT OF SUPPLEMENTARY BENEFIT IN NOVEMBER EACH YEAR (Thousands) 1962 1965 1966 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975* Retirement pensioners and National Insurance widows 60 years of age and over 1,040 1,079 1,375 1,469 1,532 1,529 1,474 1,448 1,346 Others over pension age 102 105 155 124 89 81 80 77 75 Unemployed with National Insurance benefit† 67 27 57 55 101 67 36 58 113 Unemployed without National Insurance benefit† 81 50 75‡ 123 192 229 151 176 338 Sick and disabled with National Insurance benefit 114 115 121 132 117 109 95 76 65 Sick and disabled without National Insurance benefit 105 109 112 124 127 130 130 134 126 Women under 60 years of age with dependant children 67 92 104 161 179 190 192 207 233§ National Insurance widows under 60 years of age 62 55 46 49 52 50 43 34 26 Others 11 12 12 16 15 18 18 20 22 TOTAL 1,649 1,644 2,057 2,253 2,404 2,403 2,219 2,229 2,345 * In 1975 the count took place in December and the figures are provisional. † Prior to 1972 the unemployed included some claimants who received no payment of supplementary benefit during the week of the enquiry. ‡ For 1966 the component part of the unemployed were estimated. § For 1975 the figures for women with dependant children include lone fathers.
§ Mr. Stonehouseasked the Secretary State for Social Services what estimate she makes of the numbers of persons in England who are not claiming supplementary benefit and are not in full-time work but who are living on incomes below supplementary benefit level.
§ Mr. O'MalleyIt is estimated, on the basis of information from the Family Expenditure Survey, that in December 1974 there were 870,000 such persons living in 640,000 families. This estimate, which is subject to sampling error, does not purport to show the level of unclaimed entitlement to supplementary benefit.