HC Deb 06 June 2000 vol 351 c216W
Mr. Alasdair Morgan

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is the annual cost of his Department's and its agencies administration of benefit payments(a) in total and (b) as a percentage of spending on benefit payments. [124254]

Mr. George Howarth

The estimated cost of administering the social security benefit system in Northern Ireland in 1998–99, the latest year for which information is available, was £125.6 million. This equates to 4 per cent. of benefit expenditure which amounted in total in that year to £3,168.8 million.

Responsibility for this subject has been devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly and is therefore no longer a matter for the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.