§ Mr. Foulkesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish figures for the estimated take-up of supplementary benefit derived from the 1984 family expenditure survey on the same basis as his reply of 30 November 1983 to the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Mrs. Rumbold), Official Report, columns 532–34.
§ Mr. LyellEstimates of take-up of supplementary benefit based on the family expenditure survey are produced biennially. The latest available figures are for 1983. For those I refer the hon. Member to my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford, South (Mr. Thorne) on 30 October at columns231–34.
§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many claims for sickness benefit were submitted in each quarter since 1979.
§ Mr. LyellThe information is available for broad quarters—12 to 16 weeks—only. Numbers include claims for invalidity benefit and, up to April 1983, for non-contributory invalidity pensions. Numbers are affected by self certification for the first week of sickness, introduced in June 1982, and statutory sick pay which was introduced in April 1983 for periods of up to eight weeks, extended to 28 weeks in April 1986.
Year First quarter Second quarter Third quarter Fourth quarter 1979 2,160,6201 2,738,1392 2,106,2982 3,086,4543 1980 2,402,7662 2,368,1492 1,975,0742 2,613,8173 1981 1,939,1922 1,873,7052 1,514,0382 2,297,5423 1982 1,937,7282 1,926,0292 1,347,3112 1,824,1853 1983 1,581,2722 1,443,0714 300,2802 344,3262 1984 490,4343 294,6102 289,8542 338,4632 1985 483,6063 315,5422 302,9532 344,0242 1986 479,8953 222,0552 203,5722 — 1 10 week period only (December 1978 data not available). 2 12 week quarter. 3 16 week quarter. 4 20 week period (to bring in change to counting period).