§ Angela SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many claimants of family credit there are in the Basildon constituency; and how many people in the Basildon constituency are in receipt of income support. [22831]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe administration of Family Credit and Income Support is a matter for Peter Mathison, Chief Executive of Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.
442WLetter from Peter Mathison to Angela Smith, dated 16 January 1998:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many families in Basildon are in receipt of Family Credit (FC), and how many are in receipt of Income Support (IS).The information is not available in the format requested. The FC Unit produces statistics which show the number of families in receipt of FC within individual Benefits Agency (BA) office areas. IS produces information which relates to the number of families in receipt within a BA District.The BA's Essex South West District includes offices at Basildon, Grays and Harlow.The number of families in receipt of FC, in the BA office at Basildon, was 2,088 as at September 1997. The number of families in receipt of IS, in the Essex South West District, was 33,865 as at November 1997. These figures are provisional and subject to change. The information serves as a "snap-shot" of the position at the date of the scan and does not provide details of the number of families in receipt of benefit annually.I hope you find this reply useful.