§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list for(a) Mexborough and (b) Doncaster residents within the parliamentary constituency of Don Valley entitled to received cold weather payments the station used as the basis for calculations; in respect of how many days each area has received cold weather payments in winter 1995–96; what has been the total amount paid to date; and if he will make a statement. [17376]
§ Mr. Roger EvansThis 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 Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 6 March 1996:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking if he will list for (a) Mexborough and (b) Doncaster residents within the Parliamentary constituency of Don Valley entitled to receive Cold Weather Payments (CWPs) the station used as the basis for calculations; in respect of how many days each area has received cold weather payments in winter 1995–96; what has been the total amount paid to date; and if he will make a statement.
The information is not available in the format requested. This is because statistics are not kept which are specific to Parliamentary Constituencies but are kept by Benefit Agency Districts.
Postal codes within the Rother and Dearne and Doncaster Districts are linked to the weather stations at Leeds and Waddington. A copy of the postal codes which are linked to each weather station is available in the Library. Leeds Weather Station has had 7 days of identified cold weather and Waddington has had 21 days.
Rother and Deame District, which comprises the Benefit offices Goldthrope, Mexborough, Rotherham North, Rotherham South and Wath on Dearne, has made 24,032 CWPs amounting to £204,272 and Doncaster District, which comprises the Benefit offices Doncaster Castle House and Doncaster St. Peters House, has made 46,602 CWPs amounting to £396.117.
I hope you find this reply helpful.
§ Mrs. Ann TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people in(a) West Yorkshire and (b) the Dewsbury constituency have received (i) one, (ii) two, (iii) three and (iv) four cold weather payments in the past three months. [17335]
350W
§ Mr. EvansThe administration of the social fund 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. Ann Taylor, dated 6 March 1996:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many people in (a) West Yorkshire and (b) the Dewsbury constituency have received (i) one, (ii) two, (iii) three and (iv) four cold weather payments in the past three months.
The information is not available in the format requested. Statistics are not kept which are specific to Parliamentary Constituencies but are kept for Benefit Agency Districts. Also information is not kept on the number of people who received payments but is available to show the total number of payments made. The numbers of payments issued to each individual could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
However information is available for each district office (including the district which covers the Dewsbury area) in West Yorkshire for the last three months and is given at Appendix A.
I hope you find this reply helpful.
Appendix A: Number of cold weather payments paid in West Yorkshire 1995–96 District Benefit Offices Number paid Bradford Bradford East Bradford South Bradford West 130,643 Kirklees Dewsbury Huddersfield 66,442 Leeds Aire and Wharfe Leeds North Leeds North-west 16,828 Leeds Ridings Leeds East Leeds South Leeds West 24,732 Wakefield Castleford Hemsworth Pontefract Wakefield 18,226 Yorkshire Penine Halifax Keighley Skipton 88,824 Figures are provisional and subject to change. These figures do not include any clerical payments that may have been made in January and February as this information is not yet available. The data given are the number of actual payments made and not the number of people who received a payment.