§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, further to the oral reply to the hon. Member for Torfaen (Mr. Murphy) of 27 November,Official Report, column 420, if he will indicate the nature and scale of the difficulties faced by 16 and 17-year-olds in claiming benefit and give the numbers of those affected and refused.
§ Mrs. Gillian ShephardOur monitoring has confirmed that our policy operates without difficulty for the vast majority of 16 and 17-year-olds. Such isolated difficulties as have arisen range from a possible misunderstanding of procedures by local office staff to lack of knowledge of the benefit provisions on the part of some young people. To overcome these, we have introduced the administrative changes which I announced on 27 November.