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Dept of Social Security;Social Security Benefits Agency

Answer

Ms Rachel Squire: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many families were in receipt of family credit in the Fife Benefits Agency office area in each quarter since February 1995. [19942] Mr. Roger Evans: The administration of family credit is a matter for Peter Mathison, chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member. Letter from Peter Mathison to Ms Rachel Squire, dated 19 March 1997: The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many families were in receipt of Family Credit (FC) in the Fife Benefits Agency office area in each quarter since February 1995. The information is not available in the format requested. It may be helpful if I explain that FC is administered centrally by the Family Credit Unit. Statistics are produced on a national basis and provide the number of families in receipt of FC within a particular Benefits Agency (BA) office area at a given date. Such details are not produced on a regular monthly or quarterly basis. The information available only serves as a "snap-shot" of the position at that date and does not provide details of the number of families in receipt of FC over a given period. There are 4 benefit offices within the Fife District, these are Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline, Kircaldy and Leven. FC statistics relating to each of these offices produced since February 1995 have been provided in the attached annex. I hope you find this information useful. Annex: The number of families in receipt of family credit within the Fife benefits agency office area, at the date indicated, are as follows: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Date of scan Cowdenbeath Dunfermline Kirkcaldy Leven Total 10 February 1995 596 1,084 1,593 677 3,950 13 July 1995 653 1,163 1,704 738 4,258 10 November 1995 647 1,188 1,781 736 4,352 16 February 1996 643 1,201 1,782 728 4,354 12 April 1996 650 1,178 1,760 755 4,343 7 June 1996 668 1,226 1,829 777 4,500 10 October 1996 699 1,276 1,645 814 4,434 3 January 1997 697 1,254 1,802 799 4,552 _________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

19942; 292 c893-4W

Session

1996-97

Subjects

Family credit Fife

Contains statistics

Yes