§ Mr. PikeTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people in Lancashire received(a) income support and (b) housing benefit in each year from 1979 to 1996. [24879]
§ Mr. Roger EvansThe administration of income support is a matter for Peter Mathison, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Ursula Brennan to Mr. Peter Pike, dated 19 April 1996:
As Peter Mathison is away from the office on annual leave at the moment, the Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many people in Lancashire received (a) Income Support (IS) and (b) Housing Benefit (HB) in each year from 1979 to 1996.The information is not available in the format requested. IS statistics are collated by Benefits Agency (BA) Districts and not for specific geographical areas. The areas covered by some Districts may fall outside of the County boundaries. Additionally, data prior to 1991 is only available on a national basis. Information has been provided for the BA Districts of Blackburn and Accrington; Blackpool; Bolton; Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale; Lancashire and South Cumbria; Preston; West Pennine; and South West Lancashire. Further breakdown of District information is not possible. Available IS statistics are in the attached Table 1.HB statistics are collated by Local Authority area. Information is only available from 1988. For 1988 and 1989 some information has been estimated as some Local Authorities did not provide statistical data. Information has been provided for the Local Authorities of Blackburn; Blackpool; Burnley; Chorley; Fylde; Hyndbum; Lancaster; Pendle; Preston; Ribble Valley; Rossendale; South Ribble; West Lancashire; and Wyre. HB statistics relate to claims from both IS and non-IS recipients. Available HB statistics are in the attached Table 2.I hope you find this reply helpful.30W
Table 1: Income Support Live Claims for Lancashire from 1991 Income Support live claims May 1991 212,329 May 1992 228,417 May 1993 248,700 May 1994 252,941 May 1995 251,972
Table 2: Housing benefit claims for Lancashire from 1988 Housing benefit cases for Lancashire May 19881 80,570 May 19891 77,550 May 1990 82,080 May 1991 81,240 May 1992 86,720 May 1993 88,840 May 1994 93,970 May 1995 96,880 1Estimated figures. Information refers to the number of benefit units, which may be for a single person or a couple.
§ Mr. BradleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) how many persons were receiving sickness benefit and invalidity benefit on 31 March 1995; [25801]
(2) how many persons are currently receiving incapacity benefit. [25802]
§ Mr. BurtThe available information is in the table.
Number (million) Persons receiving sickness and invalidity benefit at 12 April 19951 21.88 Persons receiving capacity benefit at 31 March 1996 31.81 1Information from the day before the introduction of incapacity benefit, the nearest date to the 31 March 1995 for which information is available. 2From 1 per cent. sample of all claims in Great Britain. 3100 Per cent. count of all claims in Great Britain. Excludes a small number of cases paid clerically.