§ Mrs. DunwoodyTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list the number of claimants for income support in(a) Crew and Nantwich and (b) Cheshire for each of the last five years. [36334]
§ 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 Peter Mathison to Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody, dated 15 July 1996:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking if he will list the number of claimants for Income Support in (a) Crewe and Nantwich and (b) Cheshire for each of the last five years.The information is not available in the format requested as the Benefits Agency (BA) collates statistics by BA District Offices. These Districts do not correspond to constituency boundaries or this specific geographical area.The information available is shown on the attached table and relates to the actual number of Income Support claims received for the financial years 1991–92 to 1995–96. Not all claims received will have resulted in an award of benefit.South Cheshire District includes the BA's offices of Cheshire, Crewe (which covers Nantwich), Ellesmere Port and Northwich. The data for Cheshire includes the Tameside and Stockport Districts. These Districts include areas which are outside Cheshire.I hope you find this reply helpful.508W
Actual number of income support claims Financial years South Cheshire district1 Cheshire2 1991–92 34,749 127,667 1992–93 33,310 123,993
Actual number of income support claims Financial years South Cheshire district1 Cheshire2 1993–94 31,032 116,227 1994–95 31,873 116,553 1995–96 30,558 111,296 1 South Cheshire District includes the offices of Chester, Crewe (which covers Nantwich), Ellesmere Port and Northwich. 2 Cheshire consists of the BA Districts of South Cheshire, Sale and East Cheshire (which includes the offices of Sale, Macclesfield and Wilmslow), North Cheshire (which includes the offices of Warrington and Widnes), Stockport (which includes the offices of Stockport and Buxton) and Tameside (which includes the offices of Hyde and Ashton). The data, which has been provided by the BA's Central Data Unit, is provisional and may be subject to change. Not all claims will have resulted in an award of benefit.