§ Mr. Spenceasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will ascertain the reasons for the long delays at the social services headquarters in Blackpool in dealing with family income supplement claims; if he will make interim arrangements through the social services department at Malton, North Yorkshire, to deal with cases involving constituents of Thirsk and Malton; and if he w ill make a statement.
§ Mrs. ChalkerThe delays are due primarily to the substantial increase which the Government made in the qualifying income levels (the "prescribed amounts") for family income supplement last November. The Government wanted to give extra help to working families with low incomes, including more help towards fuel bills, on top of the increases in child benefit and one parent benefit. Half the families receiving FTS are one-parent families.
This, coupled with the success of our television and press advertising campaign, has led to a flood of FIS claims. About 152,000 have been received since October. This is far more than in the same period in earlier years—nearly 40,000 more than last year. My hon. Friend will agree that this is an excellent response to the Government's initiative. It has meant, however, that some people have had to wait longer for a decision; the average period of delay experienced by FIS recipients, who provided all the information required when making their claims, has been about four weeks. I hope that my hon. Friend and other hon. Members will explain the reasons for the delays and convey our apologies to any constituents who have had to wait.
While I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his suggestion, I am afraid that arrangements for local payment would not help. There is no delay in the FIS unit's payment mechanism. As soon as a FIS award has been made, an order book for current payments and a girocheque for any arrears are sent direct to the family.
We anticipated that we should get more FIS claims this year but the numbers have exceeded all expectations. Additional staff were moved into the FIS unit from other parts of the North Fylde central offices from the beginning and for some time now the unit has been a third above its strength last year. Other measures have been taken to ease the situation. Progress is being made in clearing the backlog, and I shall monitor the position carefully.