§ Miss Wrightasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will state, in tabular form, the number of (a) families and (b) single persons on supplementary benefit in Birmingham in June 1979, September 1979, December 1979, March 1980 and the latest available figure.
§ Mrs. ChalkerInformation is not available to show, separately for single persons and families, the numbers claiming supplementary benefit.
The following table shows the total number of persons in receipt of supplementary benefit from the 10 local offices of the Department located in the metropolitan borough of Birmingham on the last four occasions when such information was recorded.
May 1979 89,000 August 1979 94,000 November 1979 89,000 February 1980 88,000 Since information about the number of recipients is not held by local government boundaries but only on the basis of the areas covered by particular local offices, these figures will include a small but un-quantifiable number who live just outside the metropolitan boundary.