§ Mr. Tilleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps he is taking to assist the hundreds of claimants, including families with small children, who will not receive any supplementary benefit payments from the Kennington department of health and social security offices as from Monday 25 November, because of industrial action against the Civil Service cuts.
§ Mr. PrenticeIndustrial action by some members of the Civil and Public Services Association and the Society of Civil and Public Servants at Kennington area office has led to a serious backlog of work. We are endeavouring to keep up the renewal of existing payments made by order books but it is has not yet been possible to find a way of dealing with all recent claims and correspondence. The action by the unions is inevitably causing severe hardship to large numbers of people in need.