§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people received social security benefits during the last calendar month 36W for which figures are available; of this number, how many were (a) single, (b) married and (c) married with one or more children; how many had previously been receiving benefits for the preceding one month, two months, three months, six months and one year; and how many were officially registered as unemployed.
§ Mr. O'MalleyI am afraid I cannot add to the reply I gave on 19th December 1975—[Vol. 902, c.836]—to the hon. Member's previous Question. I hope to write to him shortly about the possibilities of estimating the overlapping payments to families arising from entitlement to more than one social security benefit. Meanwhile the latest information about individual benefits is contained in a comprehensive form in "Social Security Statistics 1974 ", a copy of which is available in the Library. On the last part of the hon. Member's Question, the answer is that, in January 1976, the number of registered unemployed in Great Britain was 1,372,381.