Written question asked by Paul Clark (Labour) on Wednesday, 24 May 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 5 June 2006. It was answered by James Purnell (Labour) on Tuesday, 6 June 2006 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Pension Credit

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many residents in the Medway towns local authority area received pension credit in the most recent period for which figures were available, broken down by ward; and what the average payment was.

Answer

The information is provided in the following table:

Pension credit individual beneficiaries and the average weekly amount of benefit for wards in Medway, November 2005
Ward name	Individual beneficiaries	Average weekly benefit (£)
Chatham Central	885	47.40
Cuxton and Halling	210	39.46
Gillingham North	745	42.60
Gillingham South	650	43.81
Hempstead and Wigmore	175	38.46
Lordswood and Capstone	375	41.71
Luton and Wayfield	835	43.59
Peninsula	615	41.33
Princes Park	295	44.41
Rainham Central	425	36.76
Rainham North	345	36.15
Rainham South	425	38.72
River	340	46.36
Rochester East	600	39.52
Rochester South and Horsted	575	37.20
Rochester West	460	36.85
Strood North	530	42.55
Strood Rural	505	38.68
Strood South	775	39.52
Twydall	940	37.57
Walderslade	460	37.31
Watling	290	39.71
Medway total	11,390	41.02
Notes: 1. The numbers of individual beneficiaries are rounded to a multiple of five. 2. Average amounts are rounded to the nearest penny. 3. Totals do not always sum to area total due to rounding. 4. The number of individual beneficiaries includes both claimants and their partners. 5. Wards are based on 2003 ward boundaries. Source: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study 100 per cent data.

Secondary information