§ Mr. McAllionTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many 16 and 17-year-olds received severe hardship payments in(a) Dundee and (b) Scotland in each of the past five years for which figures are available.
§ Mr. BurtThe administration of income support is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member with such information as is available.
Letter from Tony Laurance to Mr. John McAllion, dated 4 December 1993:
As Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, it is the responsibility of Mr. Michael Bichard to answer questions about relevant operational matters. However, as Mr. Bichard is away on annual leave at the moment, I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security. This was about the number of 16 and 17-year-olds who have received Severe Hardship Payments in (a) Dundee and (b) Scotland in each of the past five years.Regrettably, the information required is not available in the format requested and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. This is because the statistics kept cover the number of applications, rather than the number of individuals who have claimed. Some customers may have made more than one application.However,I have provided figures from the earliestdate available, 1990, in the attached appendix relating to successful applications for Severe Hardship Payments. I should point out that the statistics relate to Benefits Agency Districts and are not routinely collected to show the number of claims specific to a town. The statistics given for Dundee relate to the Benefits Agency's Dundee East and West offices for the period January 1990 unitl March 1991. From the inception of the Benefits Agency in April 1991, the figures quoted are for the Tayside District Office, which also includes the Arbroath and Perth Branch Offices.I hope you find this reply helpful.640W
Successful Severe Hardship Claims Numbers Dundee 1990 75 1991 421 1992 1,168 11993 1,631 Scotland 1990 10,787 1991 10,983 1992 18,360 11993 20,587 1The figures for 1993 show the position up until the end of October.
§ Mr. McAllionTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many 16 and 17-year-olds had an automatic right to income support in(a) Dundee and (b) Scotland in each of the past five years for which figures are available.
§ Mr. BurtThe administration of income support is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member with such information as is available.
Letter from Tony Laurance to Mr. John McAllion, dared 14 December 1993:
As Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, it is the responsibility of Mr. Michael Bichard to answer questions about relevant operational matters. However, as Mr. Bichard is away on annual leave at the moment, I am replying to your Parliamentary [...]uestion to the Secretary of State for Social Security. This was about the number of 16 and 17-year-olds who had an automatic right to Income Support in (a) Dundee and (b) Scotland in each of the past five years.The information requested relating to Dundee is not routinely collected and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.However, the table below gives data from the Annual Statistical Inquiry for the total number of 16 and 17-year-olds in Scotland on Income Support. This includes those who areautomatically entitled to Income Support and those paid under the special hardship rules. To obtain separate figures would incur disproportionate cost. The figures quoted show the number of customers at the end of May 1992, the last year for which figures are available, and have been rounded to the nearest thousand.
16 and 17-year-olds in receipt of Income Support in Scotland Numbers May 1988 16,000 May 1989 2,000 May 1990 3,000 May 1991 2,000 May 1992 4,000 The figures for the Annual Statistical Inquiry are based on a 1 per cent. sample of Income Support cases at the time of inquiry.I hope you find this reply helpful.