§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will state (a) the total number of persons dependent to any extent on welfare payments excluding family allowance and child benefit, rate or housing subsidies and (b) the total number of persons who are not, for 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977; and if he will express these figures as a percentage of the population as a whole.
§ Mr. OrmeInformation is available only in relation to supplementary benefit and that relates to numbers of claimants and dependants at a point in time in each year. As an unknown number of other persons would have been dependent on supplementary benefit at other times of the year, it is not possible to give information about those who have not been dependent on supplementary benefit. The available information is as follows:
Year Population* Numbers dependent on supplementary benefit† (c) as percentage of (b) (a) (b) (c) (d) 000's 000's 1970 54,187 4,167 7.7 1971 53,828 4,564 8.5 1972 54,239 4,563 8.4 1973 54,387 4,022 7.4 1974 54,428 4,092 7.5 1975 55,557 4,434 8.0 1976 55,834 4,725 8.5 1977 ‡ ‡ ‡ * Relates to mid-year projections for Great Britain. † On a date in November/December. † Not yet available.