§ Mr. Cartwrightasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many inquiries his Department has received from or on behalf of claimants about the possibility of their pensions or other social security benefits being paid direct to a bank or National Giro account; in how many cases such requests were refused; and what reasons were given for the refusal.
§ Mrs. ChalkerMarket research indicates that there is now significant public demand for direct crediting of social security benefits to banks and other accounts, but no statistics are available on the number of people who have asked to have their benefits paid in this way. The Government, like their predecessors, agree in principle that people should be able to have their benefits paid by this method if they so choose and would like to be able to introduce such a facility as soon as the administrative and financial implications have been fully considered.