§ Mr. Sean Hughesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people are presently awaiting single payments in the Huyton office of his Department; and how many have been waiting for more than four weeks, eight weeks and 12 weeks, respectively.
§ Mr. MajorA recent count of claims for single payments in Huyton local office shows that 2,127 claims from 911 people were outstanding. Of these claims 775 had been in action for over four weeks and 229 had been in action for over eight weeks. There were no cases in action for over 12 weeks. In order to process single payment claims, it is often necessary to request additional information from claimants; this can add significantly to the time taken to determine them.
§ Mr. Sean Hughesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average length of time for which people presently have to wait for single payments in the Huyton office of his Department; and if he will break this figure down for claims relating to items of furniture, heating allowance and diet allowance, respectively.
§ Mr. MajorInformation is not available to show the average length of time taken to process single payment claims.
§ Mr. Sean Hughesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many claims for single payments have been made in each quarterly period for the last three full years for which figures are available at the Huyton office of his Department.
§ Mr. MajorThis information is not available in precisely the form requested; statistics are collected on a four-weekly rather than a quarterly basis. And, prior to 11 April 1984, the number of unsuccessful claims was not recorded, only the number of payments made.
The following table covers the calendar years 1983, 1984 and 1985:
320W
Single payments made by Huyton local office Four weeks ended Number 18 January 1983 299 15 February 1983 796 15 March 1983 761 12 April 1983 676 10 May 1983 862 7 June 1983 980 5 July 1983 1,043 2 August 1983 1,345 30 August 1983 864 27 September 1983 958 25 October 1983 949 22 November 1983 894 20 December 1983 1,154 17 January 1984 606 14 February 1984 1,169 13 March 1984 943 10 April 1984 861 8 May 1984 741 5 June 1984 1,154 3 July 1984 1,527 31 July 1984 1,570 28 August 1984 1,108 25 September 1984 1,318 23 October 1984 1,631 20 November 1984 1,801 18 December 1984 2,021 15 January 1985 979 12 February 1985 2,830 12 March 1985 2,393 9 April 1985 1,820 7 May 1985 1,446 4 June 1985 1,812 2 July 1985 1,565 30 July 1985 1,843 27 August 1985 1,582 24 September 1985 1,858 22 October 1985 1,659 19 November 1985 1,779 17 December 1985 1,620