§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) if she will list the estimated unclaimed benefit in each of the 13 area directorates of the Benefits Agency for each of the last five years for which figures are available(a) as amounts of benefit unclaimed and (b) as a percentage of total payments made for each type of benefit administered; [3215]
(2) if she will make it a requirement for the Benefits Agency to collect and publish annual statistics estimating the level of unclaimed benefit each year for each type of benefit administered by the Agency. [3216]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe regional figures requested are not collected. The latest estimates of national take-up of Income Related Benefits were published in "Income Related Benefits: Estimates of Take-up 1994–95", a copy of which is in the Library. These are the benefits of last resort and it is right that we pay particular attention to their take-up.
We will examine means of delivering more automatic help to the poorest pensioners—one million of whom do not even receive the income support which is their present entitlement. We are commissioning research to establish why they do not claim the benefit which is their due.