§ Mr. SalmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many unemployment benefit(a) payments and (b) applications were made in each month since April 1990 in (i) Scotland, (ii) Wales and (iii) England.
§ Mr. McLoughlinInformation on the numbers of people in receipt of each type of benefit are available only on a quarterly basis and relate to the stock of claimants at a point in time and not the number of new claimants each month. This shows that about one in four of all unemployed claimants in each of England, Scotland and Wales is in receipt of unemployment benefit.
Information on the flows into claimant unemployment in each month by area is available from the NOMIS database in the Library. This information relates to the total numbers of people claiming unemployment-related benefits and national insurance credits at the employment service. Figures are not seasonally adjusted.