§ Mr. ByersTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field) of 14 January,Official Report, columns 202–203, if he will express the number of people who have made at least one claim for unemployment-related benefits since April 1992 as a percentage of the working age population. [17429]
§ Mrs. Angela Knight[holding answer 24 February 1997]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the chief executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Stephen Byers, dated 25 January 1997:
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me as the Director of the Office for National Statistics to reply to your recent question asking how many people have experienced at least one spell of claimant unemployment since April 1992, and express this as a percentage of the working age population.Between 1 April 1992 and 9 January 1997, an estimated 10,225,000 claimants in Great Britain experienced at least one spell of claimant unemployment. This represents approximately 27 per cent. of the population who were of working age at sometime over the period.