Incapacity Benefit (Hansard, 24 July 1997)

§ Mr. Keith Bradley

We are committed to a review of the objective of reducing poverty and welfare dependency and to promote work incentives. We want to develop a system that supports work, savings and honesty. One of our first steps is to focus on helping people off welfare and into work. Support for sick and disabled people will form part of the review. The administration of incapacity benefit and jobseeker's allowance is a matter for Peter Mathison, chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Peter Mathison to Mr. Gerry Steinberg, dated 23 July 1997: The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many people who have been denied Incapacity Benefit (IB) due to their inability to fulfil the all work test (AWT) have also been denied Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) because they cannot fulfil the requirements of the jobseeker's agreement (a) in the Durham area and (b) in England. The information is not available in the format requested as statistics are collated by Benefits Agency (BA) District. The number of customers who failed the IB AWT during 1996/97 in the BA Districts of North and South Durham, which include the offices at Bishop Auckland, Chester-Le-Street, Darlington, Durham, Peterlee, Seaham and Stanley, was 4,000. The total number of customers who failed the IB AWT in England in 1996/97 was 140,000. These figures exclude a small number of clerical cases or disallowances where customers did not return IB questionnaires or attend examinations. Information relating to the number of people who have been denied JSA because they could not fulfil the requirements of the jobseeker's agreement is not available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. You may be interested to know that this information, from May 1997 onwards, will be available towards the end of the year in the JSA Quarterly Statistical Extract. I hope you find this reply helpful.