§ 28. Mr. Bruceasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps he is taking to simplify the process of claiming benefit at his Department's offices.
§ Dr. BoysonThe process of claiming supplementary benefit has been simplified during the past 12 months by the introduction of a postal claim form for the unemployed. This change has greatly reduced the number of people needing to visit the Department's local offices to make their claim. Consideration is now being given to extending postal claims to all supplementary benefit claimants and a pilot exercise will stall early next year. There has also been a reduction in the number of persons needing to claim benefit in that with the introduction of statutory sick pay, most people off sick for short periods no longer need to claim national insurance benefit at all. In addition, we have created a forms unit to promote and help with improving our forms and so simplify the process of claiming benefit: the Departmental forms improvement drive started in April 1983.