§ Mr. John Evansasked the Secretary of State for Employment what proportion of the unemployed receive no unemployment benefit; and what are the numbers involved.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkThe available information comes from the 1981 labour force survey which identified some 2,350 thousand people seeking work to whom around 770 thousand, about one-third, were not receiving unemployment benefit or supplementary benefits associated with being registered as unemployed. Many of these, however, would have been either receiving national insurance credits or waiting for their claim for benefit to be determined and would be included in the monthly figures for claimant unemployment; in May 1983 it is broadly estimated that about one sixth of the claimant unemployed were in this category.
Information from the 1983 labour force survey will become available later this year.