§ Mr. PondTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the performance of the Benefits Agency in 1996–97 against its targets for processing claims from newly unemployed people. [5444]
§ Mr. FieldOur objective is to reduce poverty and welfare dependency and to promote work incentives. We will streamline services to provide better, simpler more efficient services to clients within this framework. Operational matters of the Benefits Agency are the responsibility of Peter Mathison, its Chief Executive. I have asked him to write directly to the hon. Member and for his reply to be published with the answer.
Letter front Peter Mathison to Mr. Chris Pond, dated 1 July 1997:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what was the performance of the Benefits Agency in 1996–97 against its target for processing claims from newly unemployed people.The information is not available in the format requested. Claims made by unemployed people between 1 April 1996 and 6 October 1996 would have been for Income Support and Unemployment Benefit. Performance data on Income Support is not broken down into individual client groups and Unemployment Benefit was administered by Employment Services.210WHowever JobSeekers Allowance was introduced on 7 October 1996. This replaced Unemployment Benefit and Income Support for unemployed people. Details of JSA performance against targets are shown in the attached tables.I hope you find this reply helpful.
JSA performance and targets—1996–97 (from 7 October 1996–31 March 1997) Target: JSA claims clearance (BA) Per cent. Percentage of claims to be cleared in 6 days 65 1996–97 performance 84 Percentage of claims to be cleared in 14 days 90 1996–97 performance 96 1 Measures performance from the date the claim was received by the BA from the Employment Service to the date the decision on the claim was notified to the customer.
Target 1: JSA claims clearance (overall) Per cent. Percentage of claims to be cleared in 10 days 65 1996–97 performance 70.2 Percentage of claims to be cleared in 21 days 90 1996–97 performance 94.7 1 Measures performance from the date the claim was received by the Employment Service to the date the decision on the claim was issued to the customer by the BA.