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SOCIAL SECURITY

Correspondence

Dr. Godman: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when the hon. Member for Greenock

8 Mar 2001 : Column: 293W

and Inverclyde will receive a response to his letter of 9 February, concerning the Winter Fuel Payment scheme. [152424]

Mr. Rooker: A reply was issued on 6 March 2001.

Lone Parent Families

Ms Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many children in lone parent families were on Income Support in (a) London and (b) each London borough (i) in 1996 and (ii) at the latest date for which figures are available. [152198]

Mr. Bayley: The information is in the table.

Number of children in lone parent families on Income Support--Greater London

		Thousand
	May 1996	November 2000
City of London	(5)0.1	(5)0.1
Barking and Dagenham	8.6	8.9
Barnet	8.6	8.4
Bexley	6.8	6.5
Brent	14.5	11.1
Bromley	6.7	6.3
Camden	9.6	8.3
Croydon	14.6	12.9
Ealing	12.5	11.0
Enfield	12.7	11.0
Greenwich	13.7	13.2
Hackney	17.6	15.3
Hammersmith and Fulham	7.8	7.3
Haringey	14.1	14.3
Harrow	5.7	5.4
Havering	5.9	5.7
Hillingdon	7.7	8.9
Hounslow	8.9	8.2
Islington	12.5	12.2
Kensington and Chelsea	4.3	3.5
Kingston upon Thames	2.8	3.1
Lambeth	19.4	17.1
Lewisham	16.1	14.0
Merton	6.4	5.3
Newham	20.1	19.4
Redbridge	7.1	6.9
Richmond upon Thames	2.7	2.5
Southwark	19.1	16.3
Sutton	5.2	4.0
Tower Hamlets	12.7	10.7
Waltham Forest	13.6	10.5
Wandsworth	10.4	8.9
Westminster	6.5	5.1
Total	335.1	302.1

⁽⁵⁾ Figures below 500 are subject to a high degree of sampling error.

Notes:

1. Lone parents are defined as single claimants with dependants who are not receiving the disability or pensioner premiums.

2. Based on 5 per cent. sample, therefore subject to sampling error.

3. Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred and quoted in thousands.

4. Children are defined as aged 0-15 years.

Ms Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many lone parents on Income Support there were in (a) London and (b) each London borough (i) in 1996 and (ii) at the latest date for which figures are available. [152202]

Mr. Bayley: The information is in the table.

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Number of lone parents on Income Support--Greater London

	May 1996	November 2000
City of London	(6)0.1	(6)0.0
Barking and Dagenham	4.6	4.8
Barnet	5.4	5.1
Bexley	4.1	3.4
Brent	8.4	6.2
Bromley	4.0	3.9
Camden	5.9	4.7
Croydon	8.0	7.2
Ealing	7.1	6.0
Enfield	7.3	6.5
Greenwich	7.7	7.1
Hackney	10.2	8.6
Hammersmith and Fulham	4.7	3.8
Haringey	8.4	8.1
Harrow	3.1	2.9
Havering	3.7	3.2
Hillingdon	4.6	4.5
Hounslow	5.1	4.7
Islington	7.5	6.9
Kensington and Chelsea	2.7	2.2
Kingston upon Thames	1.7	1.8
Lambeth	11.6	9.8
Lewisham	9.2	7.8
Merton	3.7	2.8
Newham	10.7	9.6
Redbridge	4.0	3.8
Richmond upon Thames	1.7	1.6
Southwark	11.3	9.5
Sutton	2.9	2.1
Tower Hamlets	6.8	6.0
Waltham Forest	7.5	5.5
Wandsworth	6.1	5.0
Westminster	4.0	3.1
Total	193.7	168.3

⁽⁶⁾ Figures are below 500 and are subject to a high degree of sampling error.

Notes:

1. Lone parents are defined as single claimants with dependants who are not receiving the disability or pensioner premiums.

2. Based on 5 per cent. sample, therefore subject to sampling error.

3. Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred and quoted in thousands.

War Veterans

Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when the War Pensions Agency made an assessment of the report produced by the US Institute of Medicine in 1993 entitled "Veterans at Risk--the health effects of mustard gas and lewisite". [152000]

Mr. Bayley: The War Pensions Agency received and considered the report in 1994.

Cohabitation

Mr. Viggers: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what definition of cohabitation his Department uses for the purpose of deciding whether a widow's pension should cease. [152027]

Angela Eagle: Widow's Benefit is not payable if a person is in a relationship which constitutes "living together as husband and wife". The term "living together as husband and wife" is not defined in legislation. Guidance on what points need to be considered by a Decision Maker when deciding whether a relationship between a man and a woman is the same as that of

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husband and wife is set out in Volume 3 of the Decision Makers Guide, copies of which are available in the Library, or on the internet at www.dss.gov.uk/hq/dmg/.

Invalid Care Allowance

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what steps he plans to take to ensure that carers who will become entitled to Invalid Care Allowance as a result of the new package of measures for carers being introduced in April are made aware of their potential entitlement and encouraged to claim Invalid Care Allowance. [152331]

Mr. Bayley: There are two elements of the carer package which will be implemented in April--the increase in the carer premium and the increase in the Invalid Care Allowance (ICA) earnings limit.

The increase in the carer premium which is paid with Income Related Benefits has been publicised along with the details of benefit uprating. This will be paid automatically and additional claims will not be required.

The earnings limit in ICA will increase to £72 a week, after allowable expenses, in April. This will enable more carers to retain their benefit while working. The change in the limit was announced last autumn and a further reminder to carers will be issued in a Press Release nearer the date of the change.

In addition, all working carers who make claims for ICA in the six months period from 2 January 2001 to 2 July 2001 and are disallowed, regardless of the reason, are being advised of the earnings limit increase.

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what steps he is taking to ensure that carers who have an underlying entitlement to Invalid Care Allowance

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but who do not receive any payment due to the overlapping benefits rules are made aware that they may qualify for income support as a result of being eligible for the carer's premium. [152332]

Mr. Bayley: Since its inception in 1976, Invalid Care Allowance (ICA) has been subject to the overlapping benefits rules and will continue to be so.

Customers who are entitled to ICA but have another income maintenance benefit which overlaps, are advised in the decision letter that they may be entitled to carer premium paid as part of the income related benefits, and that it could be in their interest to claim such benefits, even if recently refused.

Disability Living Allowance

Mr. Wigley: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what the (a) target and (b) actual clearance times were for Disability Living Allowance appeals in each of the nine appeals service centres in each quarter from 1996 to October 1999, and monthly from November 1999 to date. [152024]

Mr. Bayley: The administration of Disability Living Allowance appeals is a matter for Neil Ward, Chief Executive of the Appeals Service. He will write to the right hon. Member.

Letter from Neil Ward to Mr. Dafydd Wigley, dated 8 March 2001:

The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question. You asked what the (a) target and (b) actual clearance times were for disability living allowance appeals in each of the nine appeals service centres in each quarter from 1996 to October 1999, and monthly from November 1999 to date.

There are no targets for clearance times. Information on average clearance times only is available from 1 October 1997 to 30 September 2000 and is below.

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Average clearance time between date of receipt at the Appeals Service and date cleared expressed in weeks

	Leeds	Cardiff	Birmingham	Glasgow	Liverpool	Salford	Nottingham	Newcastle	Sutton
1 October to 1 December 1997	16.7	24.5	20.8	20.0	34.0	50.5	22.1	16.7	14.1
1 January to 31 March 1998	20.1	26.1	29.9	25.6	30.5	38.0	28.3	20.9	22.9
1 April to 30 June 1998	21.0	33.6	30.5	30.7	37.5	42.7	31.4	25.7	24.6
1 July to 30 September 1998	22.6	35.8	32.5	29.8	34.0	37.8	36.6	27.4	27.5
1 October to 31 December 1998	24.7	32.4	32.9	32.6	33.7	37.1	35.4	26.3	34.3
1 January to 1 March 1999	23.4	33.7	36.4	33.8	32.9	35.3	41.8	26.4	45.6
1 April to 30 June 1999	22.3	32.3	33.8	36.1	31.1	36.3	42.1	25.6	39.1
1 July to 30 September 1999	16.9	30.1	30.7	35.7	25.3	31.5	35.9	24.3	34.1
1 October to 31 October 1999	14.3	32.0	22.5	31.2	20.6	32.8	41.6	18.6	34.7
1 November to 30 November 1999	14.1	33.2	25.5	30.8	18.4	35.3	30.6	20.8	29.6
1 December to 31 December 1999	11.2	30.5	27.9	32.9	16.3	24.8	31.3	18.8	32.0
1 January to 31 January 2000	14.2	29.4	29.8	27.6	21.6	20.3	33.1	20.0	30.6
1 February to 28 February 2000	12.9	27.6	27.7	28.8	15.0	20.5	29.6	18.8	25.5
1 March to 31 March 2000	9.7	24.9	26.8	24.5	13.1	28.1	26.2	20.1	23.5
1 April to 30 April 2000	10.1	21.4	20.1	24.0	11.4	19.7	25.1	16.2	27.1
1 May to 31 May 2000	10.2	27.9	17.5	21.8	14.0	18.5	20.7	15.2	22.3
1 June to 30 June 2000	11.1	19.1	16.0	20.4	16.1	18.2	20.1	18.2	20.3
1 July to 31 July 2000	11.5	21.0	15.3	16.7	15.7	18.7	20.1	14.5	24.4
1 August to 31 August 2000	11.6	20.3	16.3	17.1	15.6	18.7	22.8	12.5	19.4
1 September to 30 September 2000	11.7	21.7	15.1	15.1	15.1	17.2	17.1	13.3	17.4

Notes:

1. Source: 100 per cent. download from the Appeals Service GAPS computer system.

2. All figures are provisional and are subject to change.

3. The statistics do not cover the period from the date the appeal was lodged at the first tier agency or from issue of decision to the date the first tier agency received it.

4. Clearance times include appeals that took more than one hearing to reach a decision.

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I hope this information is useful.

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