HC Deb 24 March 1986 vol 94 c378W
Mr. Ralph Howell

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many unemployed people in Great Britain were claiming national insurance credits but were not receiving either unemployment benefit or supplementary allowance, at November 1985; and how many of these people (a) had been unemployed for over one year and exhausted their entitlement to unemployment benefit, (b) had claimed unemployment benefit but had their claims disallowed or (c) were ineligible for other reasons.

Mr. Major

At May 1985, the most recent date for which figures are available, there were 429,200 unemployed claimants who were in receipt of neither unemployment nor supplementary benefit. 207,800 had exhausted their entitlement to unemployment benefit, and of these 151,600 had been unemployed for over a year during the current spell of unemployment. There were 102,100 people whose claims for unemployment benefit were disallowed of whom 11,000 would not be entitled to national insurance credits because, for example, they left their jobs voluntarily, and 119,300 whose entitlement had not yet been determined or who were serving the three waiting days for unemployment benefit.