§ Mr. HuttonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people were claiming(a) invalidity benefit and (b) incapacity benefit in the Barrow and Furness parliamentary constituency in each year between 1990 and 1996. [11023]
§ Mr. BurtThe administration of invalidity benefit and incapacity benefit 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. John Hutton, dated 16 January 1997:
410WThe Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many people were claiming (a) Invalidity Benefit and (b) Incapacity Benefit in the Barrow and Furness Parliamentary Constituency in each year between 1990 and 1996.The information is not available in the format requested. Statistics are kept for Benefits Agency (BA) Districts and not by Parliamentary Constituencies. The BA District Lancaster and South Cumbria consists of the BA offices at Lancaster, Barrow and Kendal. Statistics are not available broken down by BA Districts for 1990 and 1991.The available information is shown in the attached table.I hope you find this reply helpful.
Number of customers in receipt of invalidity benefit in the benefit agency district Lancaster and South Cumbria Number March 1992 10,633 March 1993 10,961 March 1994 11,513 March 1995 12,076 March 1996 112,469 Figures are provisional and subject to change. Incapacity Benefit replaced Invalidity Benefit on 13 April 1995. 1 The figure quoted is for Incapacity Benefit cases paid at short term higher rate and long term rate, ie cases from the 29th week of incapacity. This is comparable to Invalidity Benefit.