§ Mr. BradleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many applications for special compensation payments have been made in each of the most recent four quarters for which figures are available; how many were successful; and what was the average amount of each payment in each quarter.
§ Mr. ScottThe administration of disability living allowance and attendance allowance are matters 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 M. Bichard to Mr. Keith Bradley, dated 14 January 1994:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking for details of the special compensation payments made in the most recent four quarters for which figures are available.423WFirstly, I should explain that the Special Compensation Scheme applied to both Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Attendance Allowance (AA) customers.Scans of both the DLA and AA computer systems were obtained and these lists of customers were then individualy scrutinised for possible entitlement to compensation under the special scheme.There were no applications from customers, indeed the first that the vast majority of customers knew about the scheme was when they actually received their compensation payment.The scheme has now been completed in its entirety but as there were no monthly or quarterly collations of statistics I have provided the total figures for both benefits below.
Cases examined Cases entitled Cases not entitled Cases paid Amount paid £ DLA 33,539 20,457 13,082 20,457 406,745 AA 44,299 19,564 34,735 19,527 217,105 The average payment made to both DLA and AA compensation recipients was £20.
1 The difference between AA cases entitled and AA cases paid is 37 and occurred as a result of the death of customers for whom no next of kin could be found.
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