§ Mr. Nicholas Brownasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list for each quarter from 1 January 1982 the average level of direct deduction from supplementary benefit for fuel bills for claimants who are consumers of the North Eastern electricity board or consumers of the North Eastern gas board.
§ Mr. NewtonThe information is not available in the form requested. The table shows the average level of all deductions for electricity and gas, for England, Scotland, Wales and Great Britain respectively. Figures are for December 1981, 1982 and 1983 (the latest available).
Average deductions for fuel (£ per week) England Scotland Wales Great Britain December 1981 Electricity 7.27 6.72 6.51 7.11 Gas 5.56 4.49 5.20 5.40 December 1982 Electricity 7.83 7.20 6.50 7.59 Gas 6.46 5.21 6.06 6.27 December 1983 Electricity 8.38 7.79 6.93 8.16 Gas 7.19 5.75 7.19 6.99 Source: Annual statistical enquiries.
§ Mr. Waltersasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will introduce a scheme to enable letters 372W and outstanding invoices from individual creditors to be forwarded to supplementary benefit claimants who have moved to an address unknown to those creditors;
(2) what guidelines are given to local office staff as to their response to individual creditors who are unable to trace debting customers in receipt of supplementary benefit.
§ Mr. MajorAll information held by the Department about individuals, including their addresses, is confidential and staff are instructed not to release the information without authority. The rationale for this policy is that this informaton is obtained and held solely for the purpose of maintaining national insurance contribution records and administering social security benefits. For this reason I do not believe it would be right for the information to be used to assist creditors to recover debts.