§ Malcolm BruceTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer from the Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions of 27 February 2004,Official Report, column 584W, how many (a) Post Office card accounts and (b) bank or building society accounts have (i) been requested for and (ii) are receiving payments of child benefit, broken down by region. [162736]
§ Dawn Primarolo[holding answer 22 March 2004]: Key figures on the progress of conversion of child benefit customers to direct payment are available in the House of Commons Library, updated every four weeks. They include details of requests for the Post Office card account. With regard to actual payments, as at 16 March 2004 a total of 5,750,105 child benefit customers were being paid into a bank or building society and 233,220 into a Post Office card account. There are a further 127,453 customers who have provided bank or building society details and 91,647 who have provided Post Office account details and they will be paid into their accounts when their current order book expires.
It is not possible to break down the numbers by region.