§ Mr. Tony LloydTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people claiming unemployment benefit came off the register as a result of adjudication decisions and disallowances by type in each month from 1 April 1992 to 31 March 1993.
§ Mr. McLoughlinResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Mr. Tony Lloyd, dated 11 May 1993:
As the Employment Service is an Executive Agency, the Secretary of State has asked me to write to you direct to respond to your Parliamentary Question about how many people came off the register as a result of adjudication decisions and disallowances by type in each month from 1 April 1992 to 31 March 1993. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency.
Unfortunately, I am not able to provide the information you have requested as not all clients notify my local offices of the reasons for stopping their claim. An adverse adjudication decision does not remove a person from the unemployed register. In certain circumstances, people whose claim for unemployment benefit is disallowed, continue to register as unemployed in order to receive other benefits such as Income Support and National Insurance contributions credits. If a person disagrees with an adjudication decision, they are advised to continue to register as unemployed to avoid the possibility of losing entitlement to benefit should their appeal to a Social Security Appeal Tribunal succeed.
Although information is not available in the format you requested, statistics on the volumes and types of adjudication decisions, nationally and by originating region, are collated and published quarterly. The reports, entitled "Analysis of Adjudication Officers' Decisions", have recently been revised to include the percentage of adverse decisions. At the time of writing, reports for the period up to and including September 1992 have been published and are available in the Library.
I am sorry I cannot be more helpful on this occasion.
As decided by the Administrative Committee of the House of Commons, Chief Executive replies to written Parliamentary Questions will now be published in the Official Report. I will also place a copy of this letter in the Library of the House.