HC Deb 21 May 2002 vol 386 c297W
Miss McIntosh

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to his written answers of 6 March 2002,Official Report, column 411W, and 2 May 2002, Official Report, column 983W, for what reason a revised version of the system used to allocate individuals to local areas was used; and what criteria he has used to calculate the number of claimants of incapacity benefits. [56201]

Mr. Nicholas Brown

The number of people claiming incapacity benefit is taken from a quarterly 5 per cent. scan of the benefit computer system. The process of calculating the number of incapacity benefit claimants was not altered for August 2001.

Individuals are assigned to local authorities and other areas by matching postcodes against the relevant Office for National Statistics (ONS) postcode directory. The ONS postcode directory used in the original allocation of August 2001 incapacity benefit data was later revised by ONS using an improved methodology. Numbers of incapacity benefit recipients by local authority were consequently recalculated and revised.