§ Mr. Humeasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the backlog of single payments cases which built up in 1986 and the delays in processing claims, indicating the case load and the rate at which they have been processed.
§ Mr. NeedhamIn 1986 there was a marked increase in single payment claims due mainly to the declaration of a period of exceptionally severe weather in February resulting in some 70,000 claims and a build-up of other single payment claims in some social security offices in the weeks prior to the changes in single payment regulations effective from 11 August 1986.
During the period 18 December 1985 to 16 December 1986, a total of 375,606 single payment claims were received. These were processed as quickly as possible with priority being given to the more urgent cases. Backlogs of claims varied from office to office and from month to month. Similar variations also applied to clearance time per case, which ranged from 10–12 days at the beginning of the year to more than 28 days in the peak month of August. However, overall the average daily clearance rate was 1,473 with the average clearance time per case being 12.4 days. Additional resources were made available to assist those offices with abnormal backlogs and by the end of the year the position had returned to normal.