Occupational Asthma (Hansard, 25 April 1996)

§ Mr. Roger Evans

This 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. Ian McCartney, dated 24 April 1996: As Peter Mathison is away from the office an annual leave at the moment, the Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions asking what was the average level of award paid to sufferers of occupational asthma, from whom benefit was recovered by the Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU); how much was recovered from payments and from how many occupational asthma sufferers benefit was recovered by the CRU; for each of the last three financial years. The information requested is not available in the format requested. The average level of award paid to sufferers of occupational asthma is not available. Under the recoupment provisions, compensators are only required to notify CRU of a compensation claim if the award exceeds the Small Payment Limit of £2,500. Compensators are not required to provide information about either the level or composition of the award. Prior to May 1994 information about recovery from payments to occupational asthma sufferers is not available, as the data held on the CRU computer system did not specifically identify such cases. Information from May 1994 is provided in the table below:—

Period	Number of cases	Total amount recovered¹
May 1994—March 1995	3	£7,161.06
April 1995—March 1996	27	£211,510.18
¹ These figures include money recovered from both final and interim payments.

Figures are provisional and subject to change.

I hope you find this reply helpful.