§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the current weekly rate of applications for each of the principal benefits at his Department's office at Roebuck house, Cosham, Portsmouth; and how this compares with the position one and two years ago.
§ Mr. MajorThe table shows the average weekly rate of claims made for principal benefits during October 1985, 1984 and 1983 at the Department's office in Portsmouth.
Benefit Average weekly claims October 1983 October 1984 October 1985 Sickness-invalidity benefit 61 58 48 Maternity allowance 50 44 33 Retirement pension 387 280 372 Widows benefit 4 6 4 Death grant 46 48 40 Industrial disablement benefit nil nil nil Supplementary benefit 444 438 500
§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the number of current payments of each of the principal benefits being made at his Department's office at Roebuck house, Cosham, Portsmouth; and how this compares with the position one and two years ago.
§ Mr. MajorThe table shows the number of payments made to claimants by the Department's office at Portsmouth during the four week period ending 22 October 1985—the latest available figures—and for the same period one and two years ago.
337W
1983 1984 1985 Girocheques Supplementary benefit 3,033 3,677 3,823
1983 1984 1985 Short-term benefit 4,701 5,831 7,942 Long-term benefit 6,590 2,581 Order books Supplementary benefit Combined retirement and supplementary pension 1,620 1,331 1,210 Supplementary allowance 1,340 1,550 1,434 Short-term benefit 546 729 555 Long-term benefit Notes:
1. The above figures do not include payments of supplementary benefit made through unemployment benefit offices.
2. Short-term benefit includes sickness and invalidity benefit, maternity allowance and severe disablement benefit. Long-term benefit includes retirement pension, widows pension, industrial disablement benefit and death grants.
3. Separate figures for short and long-term benefit girocheques were not kept before 1984 and separate figures for order book issues are not available.
§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is currently the average time taken by his Department's office at Roebuck house, Cosham, Portsmouth, to process new claims for single payments; and how this compares with the position one and two years ago.
§ Mr. MajorClaims for single payments are determined as soon as possible after all the information required has been collected. A limited sample of recent cases at Portsmouth local office suggests that, on average, claims for single payments are currently being determined 10 days after their receipt, similar figures for 1984 and 1983 are not available.
§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is currently the average time taken to deal with new benefit claims from (a) householders and (b) non-householders at his Department's office at Roebuck house, Cosham, Portsmouth; and how this compares with the position one and two years ago.
§ Mr. MajorInformation is not available in the form requested. The latest figures show that the average time taken to deal with all new supplementary benefit claims at the Department's office in Portsmouth is 7 days, compared with 6 days at the same time last year and 5 days the year before.