Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Supplementary Benefit – 21 October 1985

The text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Supplementary Benefit on 21st October 1985.

Mrs. Beckett Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will place in the Library tables showing for each supplementary benefit office (a) the numbers of live cases in each of the three categories, pensioners, unemployed and others, for the most recent year for which information is available and (b) the number of single payments made to claimants in each of these categories by each office in the same year.

Mr. Major Tables showing the latest available figures of claimants, in the categories of pensioners, unemployed and others, receiving supplementary benefit from each of the Department’s offices were placed in the Library on 25 March in response to the hon. Member’s earlier request of 5 March at column 504. Tables showing the number of single payments made in the year ending April 1985, broken down on the same basis, were placed in the Library on 7 October.

Ms. Harman Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many supplementary benefit claimants there were in the London borough of Southwark in each of the years 1979 to 1985; and what was the number of children dependent on these claimants in each of those years.

Mr. Major I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to her by my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Mr. Whitney) on 1 May at columns 169–70. This reply gave the number of people claiming supplementary benefit at the nine local social security offices which serve the London borough of Southwark. The areas served by these offices are not coterminous with the borough so that some claimants living in surrounding boroughs were included in the figures given. Comparable figures for the number of dependent children are not available centrally.

The following table shows the estimated number of people claiming supplementary benefit in 1981, 1982 and 1983, and the estimated number of children dependent on them. Comparable figures for 1979, 1980, 1984 and 1985 are not available centrally.

London Borough of Southwark

Year | Estimated number of Supplementary Benefit claimants | Estimated number of children dependent on these claimants

1981 | 24,000 | 11,000
1982 | 29,000 | 14,000
1983 | 30,000 | 14,000