§ Dr. HendronTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) how many people in the Turf Lodge area of west Belfast are currently receiving social security benefits of any kind;
(2) how many people in the Turf Lodge area applied for (a) disability living allowance and (b) attendance allowance in each of the last three years up to the end of 1994.
§ Mr. MossThe information is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
§ Dr. HendronTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people in the Turf Lodge area have been unemployed for longer than three years.
§ Mr. AncramThe information requested is not available. However, the Turf Lodge area falls within the boundaries of the Upper Springfield ward and at January 1995, the latest date for which information is available, 355 people in this ward had been unemployed for longer than three years.
§ Dr. HendronTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people in the Turf Lodge area are currently in receipt of(a) disability living allowance, (b) attendance allowance and (c) housing benefit.
§ Mr. MossStatistics on social security benefits administered by the Social Security Agency cannot he broken down into small geographic areas without incurring disproportionate costs.
The number of people in the rented sector in the Turf Lodge area who are currently in receipt of housing benefit is 586. The number of owner-occupiers in the area in receipt of housing benefit cannot be provided as this information is only kept at district council level.
§ Dr. HendronTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people from the Turf Lodge area are currently employed on action for community employment schemes.
155W
§ Mr. AncramResponsibility for the subject in question has been delegated to the Training and Employment Agency under its chief executive, Mr. Ian Walters. I have asked him for a reply to be given.
Letter from Ian Walters to Dr. Joe Hendron, dated 3 March 1995:
Your recent parliamentary question to the Secretary of State regarding the number of people from the Turf Lodge area currently employed under ACE has been passed to me for reply.In the absence of statistical information specifically relating to the Turf Lodge area, this response is based on ACE participants resident in the BT11 postal code area which, as your know, encompasses Turf Lodge. On 1st March 1995, 433 persons from the BT11 area were employed by 46 separate ACE Sponsors. Of course ACE Sponsors are not restricted to geographical areas from which they may recruit and it is therefore difficult to provide data which relates strictly to Turf Lodge.You will be interested to know also that one of the organisations funded by the Agency under ACE is Turf Lodge Enterprise Scheme Ltd which primarily serves the Turf Lodge area. Although its employees are not recruited exclusively from the Turf Lodge area, the company currently receives funding to employ 70 people and can attract annual funding of more than £376,000.I hope you find this information helpful.