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SOCIAL SECURITY

Sub-post Offices

Dr. Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list those sub-post offices that (a) he and (b) other Ministers have visited since May 1997. [121626]

Mr. Rooker: Department of Trade and Industry Ministers exercise Government responsibility for sub-post offices. Accordingly, neither I nor any of the Ministers have visited sub-post offices in an official capacity. However, like the rest of the population, we all make regular use of sub-post offices.

Burial Costs

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will review the level of financial support that the Benefits Agency gives towards burial costs. [122323]

Angela Eagle: We do not plan any changes to financial support towards burial costs in the immediate future but will continue to keep the scheme under review.

Pensioners

Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many pensioners there are in each London borough, broken down by age, indicating the total number aged (a) 75 to 79 and (b) 80 and older, in each of those areas. [122711]

Mr. Rooker: The precise information requested is not available. Estimates of the numbers of people of pensionable age, broken down by the age bands requested, are given in the table.

Mid-1998 estimates of the number of people of pensionable age, by London borough

	65+ male/ 60+ female	75-79	80+
City of London	1,100	200	300
Barking and Dagenham	28,200	5,700	5,900
Barnet	51,900	9,500	13,400
Bexley	38,800	7,000	8,400
Brent	32,900	5,100	6,300
Bromley	57,800	10,900	13,200
Camden	27,400	4,900	6,800
Croydon	49,700	8,800	10,800
Ealing	40,500	7,100	9,100
Enfield	43,300	7,800	11,100
Greenwich	32,800	6,500	7,600
Hackney	23,700	3,900	5,300
Hammersmith and Fulham	20,100	3,500	4,800
Haringey	27,000	4,500	6,000
Harrow	33,500	5,900	9,000
Havering	44,500	8,600	8,600
Hillingdon	40,100	7,500	9,400
Hounslow	29,800	5,200	7,000
Islington	24,000	4,200	5,200
Kensington and Chelsea	22,500	3,800	5,500
Kingston upon Thames	23,200	4,400	5,900
Lambeth	32,800	5,800	7,100
Lewisham	35,000	6,400	8,200
Merton	27,200	5,000	7,000
Newham	27,000	5,000	5,700
Redbridge	38,000	7,100	9,300
Richmond upon Thames	30,000	5,700	8,200
Southwark	31,700	6,000	6,600
Sutton	29,700	5,500	7,400
Tower Hamlets	23,800	4,200	4,600
Waltham Forest	31,700	5,800	8,200
Wandsworth	36,100	6,800	9,100
Westminster	31,900	5,300	7,500

Notes:

1. Mid-1998 population estimates supplied by the Office for National Statistics, rounded to the nearest 100 persons.

2. The numbers of the population of pensionable age are not necessarily the same as the numbers of the population that are pensioners.

3. 'Pensionable age' represents males aged 65 and over and females aged 60 and over.

19 May 2000 : Column: 312W

Guillain-Barre Syndrome

Mr. Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has to ensure that examining medical practitioners and adjudicating officers of the Disability Benefits Unit of the Benefits Agency consult the records of the family doctor and relevant consultant when assessing the claim of an applicant suffering from Guillain-Barre syndrome. [122628]

Mr. Bayley: The decision makers from the Disability Benefits Unit of the Benefits Agency have access to guidance in the Disability Handbook. This is written by the Department's Medical Policy Group and contains guidance on the care and mobility needs likely to arise from a range of medical conditions. It contains a specific section on Guillain-Barre syndrome which indicates that a factual report from the relevant hospital is likely to be important in establishing the severity of the condition. For this particular disease, the hospital is likely to be able to provide more relevant information than that normally contained in family doctor records. The examining medical practitioners also have access to this guidance. However, their role is usually to provide an independent professional assessment of the care and mobility needs and they are unlikely to need to have access to information from the claimant's medical records for this particular purpose in this particular type of case.

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