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Incapacity Benefit

Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list the number of claimants of (a) incapacity benefits, (b) disability living allowance, (c) attendance allowance and (d) disability working allowance in (i) Crewe and Nantwich and (ii) Cheshire for each of the last five years. [36345]

Mr. Burt: This is a matter for Peter Mathison, chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Peter Mathison to Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody, dated 15 July 1996:

The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking if he will list the number of claimants of (a) Incapacity Benefits, (b) Disability Living Allowance, (c) Attendance Allowance and (d) Disability Working Allowance in (i) Crewe and Nantwich and (ii) Cheshire for each of the last five years.
The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in Annex A, B and C.
I hope you find this reply helpful.

Annex A
Incapacity Benefit (IB)
Statistical data for IB claims is collated at District level, the boundaries of which do not correspond with constituency boundaries or specific geographical areas.
South Cheshire District includes the BA's offices of Chester, Crewe (which covers Nantwich), Ellesmere Port and Northwich. Figures for this District are shown in the following list:
1991-1992: 19,675
1992-1993: 22,334
1993-1994: 23,756
1994-1995: 25,552
1995-1996: 26,929
Cheshire covers the following BA Districts South Cheshire, Sale and East Cheshire, North Cheshire, Stockport and Tameside District Offices. Figures for these Districts are shown in the following list:

16 Jul 1996 : Column: 506

1991-1992: 73,389
1992-1993: 83,574
1993-1994: 90,926
1994-1995: 97,258
1995-1996: 101,040
All figures are provisional and subject to change.
Annex B
Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
The figures for DLA are rounded to the nearest hundred and are only available for the latest four years. This is because the data for 1992 would not be reliable due to the conversion of existing Attendance Allowance and Mobility Allowance data onto the new DLA computer system. The figures refer to successful claims only. The totals of unsuccessful claims are not available.

	1993	1994	1995	1996
Crewe and Nantwich	2,000	2,100	2,600	2,900
Cheshire	23,700	25,600	29,900	33,200




Figures as at 31 May each year.

Attendance Allowance (AA)
The figures for AA are rounded to the nearest hundred and are only available for the latest two years only due to incomplete post code information held on system prior to this date. The figures refer to successful claims only. The totals of unsuccessful claims are not available.

	1995	1996
Crewe and Nantwich	2,400	2,400
Cheshire	19,200	18,900




1995 figures at 30 November 1995 due to data problems associated with on-line conversion to the computer system.

1996 figures as at 31 May 1996.

All figures are provisional and subject to change.

Annex C
Disability Working Allowance (DWA)
Statistical data for DWA claims is collated at BA office level, the boundaries of which do not correspond with constituency boundaries or specific geographical areas.
The following figures refer to successful claims only. The totals of unsuccessful claims are not available. The figures are given in the form of cumulative successful claims since 1992:
Crewe BA office: 37
Cheshire: 281
The BA office at Crewe covers Nantwich.
Cheshire includes details for the following local offices: Chester, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Hyde, Macclesfield, Manchester/Sale, Northwich, Stockport North, Stockport South, Warrington, Widnes and Wilmslow.
All figures given are provisional and subject to amendment.

Social Fund Loans

Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list the number of applications for social fund loans in (a) Crewe and Nantwich and (b) Cheshire for each of the last five years. [36337]

Mr. Roger Evans: The administration of the social fund is a matter for Peter Mathison, chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.

16 Jul 1996 : Column: 507

Letter from Peter Mathison to Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody, dated 15 July 1996:

The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking if he will list the number of applicants for Social Fund loans in (a) Crewe and Nantwich and (b) Cheshire for each of the last five years.
The information is not available in the format requested. With the creation of the Benefits Agency (BA) in April 1991, former departmental local offices were grouped into Districts. Statistical data for SF loans is only collected at District level, the boundaries of which are not the same. Therefore, the information is not available exclusively for Crewe, Nantwich or Cheshire.
Crewe and Nantwich form part of South Cheshire District, which also has offices at Chester, Ellesmere Port and Northwich. The attached Annex gives information for this District and also for the Districts of Sale & East Cheshire, North Cheshire, Stockport and Tameside which between them cover the rest of the Cheshire area.
I hope you find this reply helpful.
Annex: Loan applications for period 1991-92 to 1995-96

District	1991-92	1992-93	1993-94	1994-95	1995-96
North Cheshire	14,511	17,200	18,725	20,968	21,526
Sale and East Cheshire	5,699	7,250	7,826	8,900	10,534
South Cheshire	17,633	20,215	21,758	19,913	19,006
Stockport	9,906	11,201	12,954	11,591	11,236
Tameside	10,085	12,486	12,618	13,201	13,041




Figures are provisional and subject to change. Sale and East Cheshire District has offices at Sale, Macclesfield and Wilmslow; North Cheshire District has offices at Warrington and Widnes; Stockport District has offices at Stockport and Buxton; and Tameside District has offices at Hyde and Ashton under Lyne.

Income Support

Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list the number of claimants for income support in (a) Crew and Nantwich and (b) Cheshire for each of the last five years. [36334]

Mr. Roger Evans: The administration of income support is a matter for Peter Mathison, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Peter Mathison to Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody, dated 15 July 1996:

The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking if he will list the number of claimants for Income Support in (a) Crewe and Nantwich and (b) Cheshire for each of the last five years.
The information is not available in the format requested as the Benefits Agency (BA) collates statistics by BA District Offices. These Districts do not correspond to constituency boundaries or this specific geographical area.
The information available is shown on the attached table and relates to the actual number of Income Support claims received for the financial years 1991-92 to 1995-96. Not all claims received will have resulted in an award of benefit.
South Cheshire District includes the BA's offices of Cheshire, Crewe (which covers Nantwich), Ellesmere Port and Northwich. The data for Cheshire includes the Tameside and Stockport Districts. These Districts include areas which are outside Cheshire.
I hope you find this reply helpful.
Actual number of income support claims

Financial years	South Cheshire district(25)	Cheshire(26)
1991-92	34,749	127,667
1992-93	33,310	123,993
1993-94	31,032	116,227
1994-95	31,873	116,553
1995-96	30,558	111,296




(25) South Cheshire District includes the offices of Chester, Crewe (which covers Nantwich), Ellesmere Port and Northwich.

(26) Cheshire consists of the BA Districts of South Cheshire, Sale and East Cheshire (which includes the offices of Sale, Macclesfield and Wilmslow), North Cheshire (which includes the offices of Warrington and Widnes), Stockport (which includes the offices of Stockport and Buxton) and Tameside (which includes the offices of Hyde and Ashton).

The data, which has been provided by the BA's Central Data Unit, is provisional and may be subject to change.

Not all claims will have resulted in an award of benefit.

16 Jul 1996 : Column: 508

Benefits Agency

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the average length of time that clients in Benefits Agency offices have to wait in the office to obtain an interview. [36167]

Mr. Roger Evans: This is a matter for Peter Mathison, chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Peter Mathison to Mr. Barry Sheerman, dated 15 July 1996:

The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what is the average length of time that clients in Benefits Agency (BA) offices have to wait in the office to obtain an interview.
The information is not available in the format requested. The Benefits Agency does not specifically monitor the length of time customers have to wait to obtain an interview.
The BA commissions independent customer research and the National Customer Survey provides an independent assessment of customer perception of, and satisfaction with, the service they have received from the BA during the previous year. The 1995 results show that the average waiting time for the majority of customers is 15 minutes.
The BA Customer Charter sets the standard that customers should be seen by the receptionist within 10 minutes (or 30 minutes at exceptionally busy times). Initial waiting times have been monitored independently and results for October 1994 to September 1995, the latest figures available, show that customers are seen, on average, within 11 minutes.
The Charter, including the standard on caller waiting times is displayed in local office reception areas and local managers have the overall responsibility for ensuring that customers are seen within that standard.
I hope you find this reply helpful.

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