§ Mr. Alan HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the average duration of a benefit claim in respect of(a) incapacity benefit, (b) severe disablement allowance, (c) invalid care allowance, (d) unemployment benefit, (e) income support where the claimant is unemployed, (f) income support where the claimant is a lone parent and (g) income support where a disability premium is payable. [36904]
§ Mr. BurtThe information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the tables.
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Table 1 Benefit Average duration of claim Sickness benefit/invalidity benefit1 1 year 5 months Severe disablement allowance 7 years 11 months
Table 1 Benefit Average duration of claim Invalid care allowance1 2 years 6 months Unemployment benefit2 20 weeks Notes:
1 Data are not yet available for incapacity benefit. Sickness benefit, invalidity benefit and invalid care allowance claim durations are based on all claims that terminated during the 1994–95 year. Data are derived from a clerical sample of 500 invalid care allowance cases, and from a 1 per cent. sample of sickness benefit and invalidity benefit cases.
2 Durations for unemployment benefit and income support are calculated from the number of live claims at a given point in time:for unemployment benefit this is 10 August 1995, for income support 25 August 1995. The unemployment benefit data are derived from a 5 per cent. sample of cases.
Source:
Income Support Quarterly Statistics Enquiry August 1995.
Table 2: Income support1 claim duration Percentage on benefit for: Number of cases (000) Under 1 year 1–2 years 2–3years 3 years or over Unemployed 1,710 51.5 16.2 8.8 23.5 Disabled 737 12.8 15.2 12.4 59.6 Lone parents 1,074 23.2 15.9 12.9 48.0 Note:
1 It is not possible to calculate the average duration of income support claims as no reliable information is available on durations of claims for those people who have been in receipt of income support for relatively long periods. A full explanation is given in the introduction to the 1993 annual statistical enquiry, a copy of which is in the Library.
Source:
Income Support Quarterly Statistics Enquiry August 1995.