§ Mr. Dubsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will publish for each year from 1979 to date the number of supplementary benefit claimants, together with the number of staff in local offices employed on supplementary benefit work;
(2) if he will publish for each year from 1979 to date the number of staff, other than in local offices, employed on supplementary benefit work and the location of such staff;
(3) if he will itemise the changes in work loads and responsibilities that have occurred in supplementary benefit work between 1979 and the present time; and what is his assessment of the effect of these changes on staff members in (a) local offices and (b) other offices.
§ Mr. NewtonThe supplementary benefit live load at May in each of the following years was:
374W
Table 1 Effective Date of Complement Complementing Year Complement Changes + - 17 April 1979 1978–79 33,075 Seasonal workers-procedural change. 4 Reductions in visiting. 140 Reduction in management posts. 53 October 1978 flexible manning review. 895 1979–80 estimated workload increases. 269 April 1979 flexible manning review. 309 London Emergency Offices. 8 Reduction in additional complement. 800 +281 -2,197 -1,916 ----Net effect 18 April 1980 1979–80 31,159 1979–80 reductions for which work saving measures were to be found during the year. 439 -439 ----Net effect 15 April 1980 1979–80 30,720 Claimants' fares. 20 "Breaking the Mould" posts. 526 October 1979 flexible manning review. 458 1980–81 estimated workload increases. 2,114 +2,660 -458 +2,202 ----Net effect 16 April 1980 1980–81 32,922 14 April 1981 1980–81 32,922 Introduction of new postal methods. 10 Extension of fuel assistance scheme. 54 Introduction of the taxation of Unemployment Benefit. 58 Introduction of combined payments of Supplementary and Contributory Benefits. 243 "Breaking the Mould" posts. 76 1981–82 reductions for which work saving measures were to be found during the year. 695 Posts allocated to Legal Aid work. 43 1981–82 estimated workload increases. 2,795 +2,917 -1,057 +1,860 ----Net effect 15 April 1981 1981–82 34,782 13 April 1982 1981–82 34,782 1982–83 estimated workload increases. 1,319 Posts not matched by work cuts in 1981–82. 516 Staff Inspection posts. 80 Quarterly statistical enquiries. 2 Taxation of Unemployment Benefit. 6
Numbers 1979 2,998,179 1980 3,010,343 1981 3,467,076 1982 4,152,127 1983 4,474,489 Table 1 shows local office supplementary benefit complements since 17 April 1979. The work involved in dealing with claims is not a function of the number of claimants or claims but of their type and duration, and of efficiency in dealing with them. Table 1 also provides an account of how policy changes and efficiency measures have partly offset other factors leading to an increase (shown as work load changes) in local office supplementary benefit business. The bulk of supplementary benefit work falls on such offices; and while it is not possible to provide the same detail for other parts of the Department, Tables 2a and 2b show a comparable record of efficiency similarly creditable to the Department's managers and the resourcefulness of its staff.
375W
Effective Date of Complement Complementing Year Complement Changes + - 17 April 1979 1978–79 33,075 Extension of quarterly signing. 16 Extension of long term scale rates. 70 "Breaking of Mould" posts. 660 Review of the Management Formula. 99 Changes in Liable relative procedures. 400 Reduction in visiting the unemployed. 240 Changes in paying the unemployed. 600 +2,009 -1,999 +10 ----Net effect 14 April 1982 1982–83 34,792 April 1982 flexible manning review. 1,265 Work cuts to help finance the 1982 Civil Service pay settlement 320 Introduction of housing benefit (partial start). 622 Introduction of postal claim form. 1,103 Increase in the capital cut-off. 105 Service to the public. 103 +1,473 -2,045 -572 ----Net effect 12 April 1983 1983–84 34,220 1984–83 estimated workload increase. 2,586 Expected extra take up of benefit. 510 Child Benefit-procedural change. 14 Introduction of equal treatment. 183 Devolution of work from regional to local offices. 115 Introduction of housing benefit. 1,823 Introduction of job splitting scheme. 61 Introduction of youth training scheme. 85 Introduction of Community Programme. 101 NHS claims-procedural change. 28 "Breaking the Mould" posts. 240 +3,408 -2,338 +1,070 ----Net effect 13 April 1983 1983–84 35,290 July 1983 flexible manning review. 818 1983 Budget procedural changes. 426 Absence Factor posts. 492 +1,736 +1,736 ----Net effect 3 August 1983 1983–84 37,026 Notes.
The complements exclude security guards, cleaners and legal aid assessment staff.
"Breaking the Mould" refers to an initiative under which 1,000 posts were added, partly in 1978 and partly in 1980, for work in such areas as 'unemployment review'. These posts have been gradually withdrawn in later years.
TABLE 2A Posts allocated to supplementary benefits work in regional offices Region (1979) 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 Region (1983) Yorkshire and Humberside 32 31 32 54 30 North Eastern Northern 23 21 25 Merseyside 38 39 39 42 54 North Western North West (Manchester) 26 25 26 27 West Midlands 28 28 28 51 48 Midlands East Midlands and East Anglia 26 28 28 London North 32 34 35 57
56
54
54
London North
London South
London West 34 32 32 London South 45 45 45 South Western 38 38 37 29 18 Wales and South Western Wales 26 28 28 Scotland 47 48 48 57 55 Scotland 376W
Table 2b Posts Allocated to Supplementary Benefits Work in Headquarters Year 1979–80 588 1980–81 574 377W
Year 1981–82 541 1982–83 500 1983–84 480
§ Sir Brandon Rhys Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish a table estimating the number of pensioners likely to be dependent on supplementary benefit and/or housing benefit when the state earnings-related pension matures in 1998 compared with the present time, using the same prices, earnings, and benefit uprating assumptions as in the Government Actuary's first quinquennial review, but assuming that rents and rates increase on average by (a) 0 per cent., (b) 5 per cent. and (c) 10 per cent. faster than the retail price index.
§ Dr. BoysonProjections are not available in the form requested and could be derived only at disproportionate cost. Any such estimates are very sensitive to the assumptions used, the policy for uprating benefits and the relative difference between movements in prices and earnings. As a broad indication, however, using assumptions similar to those used by the Government Actuary in appendix H of his report on the long-term financial estimates for the national insurance fund (HC 451: 1982), and using the latest available data, which do not reflect the changes consequent to the introduction of the housing benefit scheme, the number of supplementary pensioners could fall to about one million by the end of the century and even lower as the pensions scheme approaches full maturity in the early decades of the next century.