Ms.ShortTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security for each region and for Great Britain as a whole how many income support and unemployment benefit claimants have (i) successfully and (ii) unsuccessfully claimed income support under the hardship rules in each month since August 1990, showing those whose claim was in doubt due to(a) actively seeking work and (b) availability for work.
§ Mr. JackMost unemployed people are required to be available for and actively seeking work as a condition of receiving benefit. A payment to avoid hardship will be automatically considered by the adjudication officer where someone fails to fulfil this condition, resulting in the loss of benefit.
The statistics kept are given in the table. The remainder of the information is not available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
259W
Income support MR255 September October November December 1990 1990 1990 1990 Hardship claims under Regulation 10A(2), ASW Number of awards made 14 11 6 4 Number of awards refused 10 1 0 3 Midlands Region Hardship claims under Regulation 8(3), availability Number of awards made 10 24 7 5 Number of awards refused 6 9 5 1 Hardship claims under Regulation 10A(2), ASW Number of awards made 2 9 0 1 Number of awards refused 1 3 3 1 Wales and South Western Region Hardship claims under Regulation 8(3), availability Number of awards made 29 21 20 15 Number of awards refused 16 16 21 5 Hardship claims under Regulation 10A(2), ASW Number of awards made 9 5 4 2 Number of awards refused 4 1 0 1 North Eastern Region Hardship claims under Regulation 8(3), availability Number of awards made 10 11 20 8 Number of awards refused 17 11 9 3 Hardship claims under Regulation 10A (2), ASW Number of awards made 2 9 8 6 Number of awards refused 1 10 3 0 North Western Region Hardship claims under Regulation 8(3), availability Number of awards made 37 19 48 12 Number of awards refused 56 61 40 37 Hardship claims under Regulation 10(A) (2), ASW Number of awards made 4 7 11 13 Number of awards refused 5 5 17 1 Scotland Hardship claims under Regulation 8(3), availability Number of awards made 16 8 14 8 Number of awards refused 7 10 16 7 Hardship claims under Regulation 10A (2), ASW Number of claims made 1 10 21 11 Number of claims refused 2 4 5 0 National Hardship claims under Regulation 8(3), availability Number of awards made 156 132 149 68 Number of awards refused 113 123 96 56 Hardship claims under Regulation 10A (2) ASW Number of awards made 33 51 50 39 Number of awards refused 24 29 28 15