§ Mr. Richard Wainwrightasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average length of time taken to process each new claim for supplementary benefit at each of the offices of his Department in the area of Kirklees metropolitan district council.
§ Mr. NewtonInformation about the average time taken to process claims to supplementary benefit is available only for the period between the date of the claim and the date on which benefit entitlement was decided. The average processing times in the two local offices in the area of Kirklees metropolitan district council in the four weeks ending 15 March 1983 were as follows:
Dewsbury 4 days Huddersfield 6 days Source: local office management returns.
§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many disputed supplementary benefit decisions went to the tribunal hearing for (a) the Birkenhead north and (b) the Birkenhead south offices for each of the past five years; in what percentage of appeals the claimants were successful in each of these years; and if he will give comparable data for (i) Liverpool, (ii) Merseyside, and (iii) Great Britain over the same time period
§ Mr. NewtonThe details for individual tribunals are not available. The other information requested is set out in the following table:
1978 1979 1980 1981 To 30 June 1982 Birkenhead, Wallasey and District SBAT Appeals heard 660 550 504 527 A.G.H. Per cent, successful n/a n/a n/a n/a A.G.H. Liverpool SBAT Appeals heard 4,254 3,005 2,635 2,376 A.G.H. Per cent, successful n/a n/a n/a n/a A.G.H. Merseyside Appeals heard 6,596 4,787 4,419 4,345 2,292 Per cent, successful 18.8 18.1 19.5 16.7 17.3 Great Britain Appeals heard 62,308 50,639 49,355 49,864 27,201 Per cent, successful 20.0 21.4 22.1 17.8 17.9 n/a = not available