HC Deb 29 February 1980 vol 979 cc784-8W
Mr. Frank R. White

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many appeals on supplementary benefit and family income supplement were submitted in each of the metropolitan districts of Greater Manchester and the United Kingdom as a whole and how many and what proportion actually went before the tribunals at the nearest convenient date for each of the last five years.

Mrs. Chalker

I regret that all the information requested is not available for a period of five years. The following table gives the available data of appeals to the tribunals in the metropolitan districts of Greater Manchester together with figures for Great Britain. The Department is not responsible for tribunals in Northern Ireland.

It would be misleading if much importance were attached to percentages based on small numbers of cases.

Bolton Manchester Rochdale
Supplementary benefit FIS Supplementary benefit FIS Supplementary benefit FIS
1975—
Appeals Lodged
Appeals Heard
Proportion of Appeals Heard (per cent.)
1976—
Appeals Lodged
Appeals Heard
Proportion of Appeals Heard (per cent.)
1977—
Appeals Lodged 1,247 18 4,440 50 810 19
Appeals Heard 785 13 3,103 34 627 16
Proportion of Appeals Heard (per cent.) 62.9 72.2 69.9 68.0 77.4 84.2
1978—
Appeals Lodged 1,142 15 4,157 67 967 13
Appeals Heard 777 12 2,763 46 583 11
Proportion of Appeals Heard (per cent.) 68.0 80.0 66.5 68.6 60.3 84.6
1979—
Appeals Lodged 862 9 3,253 35 705 16
Appeals Heard 630 5 2,242 30 450 11
Proportion of Appeals Heard (per cent.) 73.1 55.5 68.9 85.7 63.8 68.7

Stockport Wigan Great Britain
Supplementary benefit FIS Supplementary benefit FIS Supplementary benefit FIS
1975—
Appeals Lodged 68,975 1,650
Appeals Heard 32,795 1,283
Proportion of Appeals Heard (per cent.) 47.5 77.8
1976—
Appeals Lodged 101,112 1,668
Appeals Heard 55,125 1,668
Proportion of Appeals Heard (per cent.) 54.5 68.8
1977
Appeals Lodged 1,333 27 491 5 114,734 1,649
Appeals Heard 790 17 183 2 62,896 1,047
Proportion of Appeals Heard (per cent.) 59.3 62.9 37.3 40.0 54.8 63.5
1978—
Appeals Lodged 1,208 17 564 3 115,467 1,693
Appeals Heard 693 11 317 2 62,308 973
Proportion of Appeals Heard (per cent.) 57.4 64.7 56.2 66.6 53.9 57.5
1979—
Appeals Lodged 842 8 309 5 94,415* 1,234
Appeals Heard 465 6 170 50,742* 797
Proportion of Appeals Heard (per cent.) 55.2 75.0 55.0 60.0 53.7* 64.6
* These figures are subject to confirmation.

The appeals shown for Manchester include a small number of appeals lodged in Wilmslow which is outside the metropolitan district of Greater Manchester, and those shown for Stockport similarly include some from Buxton and Macclesfield.