§ Mr. Marlowasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the esti- 652W mated annual cost of unemployment and supplementary benefit listed separately and paid as follows (a) to those under 21 years of age, excluding single parent families and (b) to those under 21 years of age, excluding children of single parent families, who are living with their parents; and what are the numbers involved.
§ Mrs. ChalkerInformation is not available in the form presented; in particular no estimate of annual costs is possible because the incidence of claims from young people is not even over the whole year.
The estimated weekly amount of unemployment benefit payable on 9 November 1978 to people aged 16–19 years was £1,018,000—66,000 claimants—and to those aged 20–24 years it was £1,986,000—109,000 claimants. Information is not available about the number of single parents included in these figures.
At the end of November 1978, supplementary benefit payments averaging £12.91 a week were being made to 165,000 people under 21—other than single parents. These included 138,000 who were not householders—but not necessarily living with their parents—and whose supplementary benefit payments average £11.81 a week.