HC Deb 16 November 1989 vol 160 c440W
Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what steps were taken to ensure that income support was paid from 9 October to pensioners who claimed before that date and whose income at the date of claim exceeded the qualifying limit by less than the amount by which the pensioner premium was to be increased.

Mrs. Gillian Shephard

An extensive publicity campaign mounted from 9 July invited pensioners to claim income support. All claims made on or after that dale by pensioners whose income exceeded the qualifying limit at the date of claim were automatically reconsidered from 9 October. Where appropriate, income support was payable from the payday in that week.

Ms. Short

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many persons aged 16 and 17 years had made applications for income support on grounds of extreme hardship, how many had been granted at 3 November by region; and how many at the same dates had been granted income support on grounds of being within exempted categories, by category.

Mr. Scott

The number of applications from 16 and 17-year-olds on grounds of severe hardship and the number of directions given to enable benefit to be paid in the period 12 September 1988 to 3 November 1989 are in the following table:

Applications received Directions given
London North 1,269 785
London South 1,227 779
Midlands 1,827 1,227
North East 3,794 2,534
North West 2,428 1,540
Wales and South West 1,317 840
Scotland 6,134 4,197
Great Britain 17,996 11,902

Notes:

1. Based on 100 per cent. count of decisions received.

2. Information relates to the number of applications received rather than the number of young people involved. Some individuals may have received more than one direction.

As indicated in the reply to the hon. Member on 26 October at columns 539–40, the number of 16 and 17-year-olds granted income support because they fall within one of the exempt categories ceased to be collected after October 1988 and could now be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, our monitoring of the changes introduced in July 1989 indicates that between July and September some 2,600 awards of benefit were made to those who qualified under the exempt categories.