§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will publish a table showing how many claimants of invalidity benefit had the cases reviewed between 1 April 1993 and 1 October 1993; and in each year prviously to 1990; what number of such cases for each period had either(a) a reduction or (b) a withdrawal of invalidity benefit; and how many new claims of invalidity benefit were accepted for each period.
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§ Mr. ScottDetailed information about adjudication officers' decisions which review entitlement to invalidity benefit is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. We estimate that between 1 April 1993 and 30 September 1993, across all benefits for incapacity1, some 35,000 disallowances2 were made on the ground that the claimant was not incapable for work. Estimates for earlier years are not available. Available information about new spells of invalidity benefit entitlement is in the table.
1 Sickness benefit, invalidity benefit, severe disablement allowance, and people claiming, these benefits but receiving only national insurance credits with or without income support.2 Based on a 5 per cent. sample of cases referred to the Benefits Agency Medical Service, rounded to the nearest thousand.
Spells of invalidity benefit entitlement commencing Period Number 2 April 1990 to 30 March 1991 288,000 1 April 1991 to 4 April 1992 323,000 Note: Based on a 1 per cent. sample of claimants in Great Britain, rounded to the nearest thousand.
§ Mrs. Bridget PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of the number of existing recipients of invalidity benefit in(a) London and (b) Lewisham who will be disqualified under the new capacity test.
§ Mr. ScottNumbers cannot be reliably estimated at this stage, but our current estimate is that around 200,000 of the people who initially transfer to incapacity benefit from invalidity benefit may fail to satisfy the test within the first two years. This estimate cannot be broken down by district.
Some of these people would have been excluded from benefit by existing medical controls but will be excluded at an earlier stage by the new medical test. Around 100,000 people a year are found capable of their own or an alternative occupation by the existing medical controls. This includes people claiming sickness benefit, severe disablement allowance and income support because of incapacity for work, as well as invalidity benefit.
§ Mrs. Bridget PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is his estimate of the number of people in receipt of invalidity benefit in(a) London and (b) Lewisham for each of the last 10 years.
§ Mr. ScottThis 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 Mrs. Bridget Prentice, dated 22 March 1994:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about Invalidity Benefit (IVB) recipients in London and Lewisham.The information is not available in the format requested. This is because Benefits Agency (BA) district boundaries do not correspond with county or borough boundaries.The Agency's Lewisham and Brixton District is not only responsible for Lewisham postal addresses but also for some adjacent areas. Information about those customers resident in the Lewisham postal area could be obtained only at a disproportionate cost. I have, therefore, provided at Appendix 1 the number of people claiming IVB in the Lewisham and Brixton District.Information relating to the numbers of IVB customers is collected by each District. However, separate statistics for IVB 333W customers were not maintained by Districts until May 1991. I am, therefore, only able to provide information for the Lewisham and Brixton District from that date.In addition, the figures include some customers who have claimed but are not actually receiving IVB. This is because there are circumstances in which although there is an underlying entitlement to IVB, because a higher overlapping benefit is in payment no IVB is actually paid. The figures were obtained from a 100 per cent. clerical count of cases in the District Office.BA District generally comprise of a District Office and one or more Branch Offices. Although a number of BA Districts deal only with London postal addresses, others consist of offices both inside and outside the London postal area. I am, therefore, unable to provide the information in the exact format requested.However, I have provided at Appendix 2 a table showing the number of customers in receipt of IVB in respect of the former Greater London Council geographical area. These figures are based on a 1 per cent. sample of customers. The figure given for 4 April 1992 is the latest date for which figures are available.I hope you find this reply helpful.
Appendix 1 Number of IVB customers in the Lewisham and Brixton district Year and month Total 1991 May 5,058 June 5,047 July 4,937 August 4,411 September 5,103 October 5,014 November 4,864 December 4,905 1992 January 5,043 February 5,090 March 5,041 April 5,177 May 5,151 June 5,341 July 5,608 August 5,569 September 5,717 October 5,911 November 5,824 December 6,017 1993 January 6,092 February 6,179 March 6,035 April 6,166 May 6,165 June 6,131 July 6,192 August 6,345 September 6,510 October 6,544 November 6,272 December 6,628 1994 January 6,705 February 6,415 334W
Appendix 2 Number of IVB recipients in the former greater London council area Date Number of recipients 2 April 1983 54,000 31 March 1984 57,000 30 March 1985 61,000 5 April 1986 64,000 4 April 1987 67,000 2 April 1988 73,000 1 April 1989 77,000
Date Number of recipients 31 March 1990 84,000 30 March 1991 97,000 4 April 1992 109,000