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Northern Ireland Office;Social Security Agency

Answer

Mr. Mallon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many individuals are in receipt of (a) disability living allowance, (b) incapacity benefit, (c) severe disablement benefit, (d) family credit, (e) income support, (f) jobseeker's allowance, (g) widow's benefit, (h) state retirement pension and (i) child benefit, in each parliamentary constituency. [13314] Mr. Moss: Responsibility for the subject has been delegated to the Social Security Agency under its chief executive, Mr. Alec Wylie, and I have asked him to arrange for a response to be given. Letter from Alec Wylie to Mr. Seamus Mallon, dated 4 February 1997: I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the number of people in receipt of various social security benefits in each parliamentary constituency. I have attached a table which shows the number of customers in receipt of five of the benefits listed in your question. Unfortunately, information about Widows Benefit, Child Benefit and Retirement Pension is not available in the format you requested. It will also be some time before the figures are available for Jobseeker's Allowance. I hope this explains the position for you but I would be happy to provide any further information you require. Number of people in receipt of various social security benefits _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Constituency Severe Disablement Incapacity Disability living Income support Family credit Allowance (August benefit{1} (August allowance (August (August 1996) (February 1996) 1996) 1996) 1996) Strangford 652 4,508 4,080 8,085 956 Belfast East 547 3,703 4,213 9,206 806 North Down 646 3,778 3,721 7,809 993 South Down 1,061 6,228 5,980 13,602 1,819 Lagan Valley 702 4,841 6,063 11,694 1,285 South Antrim 1,054 4,630 5,025 8,957 1,340 North Antrim 795 4,731 4,002 11,492 1,531 East Antrim 677 4,756 4,670 10,186 1,327 East Londonderry 979 5,399 4,992 15,512 1,805 Mid-Ulster 1,091 6,910 7,195 16,403 1,957 Newry and Armagh 1,130 6,352 6,596 16,160 1,555 Upper Bann 821 6,760 7,256 11,818 1,537 Fermanagh and South Tyrone 936 4,676 5,327 15,395 1,735 Foyle 1,243 8,179 10,157 22,963 2,046 Belfast South 482 3,412 3,822 11,372 613 Belfast West 860 6,350 10,397 20,355 1,652 Belfast North 745 5,893 7,436 15,693 1,291 Unknown{2} 624 3,070 3,515 7,410 649 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} Includes customers in receipt of credits only. {2} Benefit recipients which cannot be assigned to a particular constituency.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

13314; 289 c727-8W

Session

1996-97

Subjects

Disability living allowance Income support Family credit Incapacity benefit Northern Ireland Recipients Social security benefits Severe disablement allowance

Contains statistics

Yes