Benefits, Doncaster (Hansard, 9 March 1994)

§ Mr. Scott

This 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 Michael Bichard to Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 8 March 1994: The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about benefit recipients in Doncaster. The information is not available in the format requested. This is because Benefits Agency District boundaries do not correspond with county or borough boundaries. A small part of the Doncaster area falls within that covered by the Mexborough Branch Office of the Agency's Rother and Dearne District. Statistics relating to the Mexborough customers living in the Doncaster area receiving Sickness Benefit, Invalidity Benefit, Income Support and Family Credit could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. However, I have provided details for the area covered by the Doncaster District only. Statistical data for each of the benefits is collected and collated over different periods and timescales. The latest available figures show that on the last working day of January 1994 there were 14,728 people claiming Invalidity Benefit and 3,160 people claiming Sickness Benefit; on the last working day of February there were 30,800 people claiming Income Support, and at 18 February 1994 there were 3,010 people claiming Family Credit. Attendance Allowance and Disability Living Allowance are centrally administered benefits. A clerical trawl would be necessary to ascertain the number of Attendance Allowance beneficiaries residing in Doncaster. To obtain the same information for Disability Living Allowance recipients would necessitate a scan of the DLA computer system. Both these exercises could only be carried out at a disproportionate cost. I hope you find this reply helpful.