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Northern Ireland Office

Answer

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the average clearance times were in days achieved by the Social Security Agency (a) in each of the last four financial years and (b) in the current financial year to date for dealing with applications for (i) jobseeker's allowance, (ii) income support, (iii) disability living allowance and (iv) incapacity benefit. [208587] Mr. Spellar: The average clearance times in days achieved by the Social Security Agency in each of the last four financial years and in the current financial year to date for the benefit applications in question are set out in the following table. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 Benefit type Target Result Target Result Target Result Jobseeker's allowance 93% in 21 days 94.7% in 21 days AACT 12 days AACT 8.7 days AACT 12 days AACT 9.5 days Income support 87% in 13 days 89.6% in 13 days AACT 12 days AACT 5 days AACT 12 days AACT 7.2 days Disability living 95% in 73 days 79% in 73 days 95% in 73 days AACT 83.9% in 73 AACT 60 days AACT 73.6 days allowance days Incapacity benefit 85% in 30 days 80% in 30 days AACT 30 days AACT 28 days AACT 30 days AACT 29.1 days Benefit type 2003-04 2004-05 Target Result Target Year to date Jobseeker's allowance AACT 12 days AACT 10 days AACT 12 days AACT 11 days Income support 12 days AACT 8.6 days AACT 12 days AACT 9.8 days Disability living allowance AACT 60 days AACT 95.1 days AACT 60 days AACT 57.9 days Incapacity benefit AACT 30 days AACT 28.5 days AACT 30 days AACT 39.6 days _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Notes: The targets set for 2000-01 were expressed in terms of claims clearance time. These measured the percentage of processed claims which were cleared in X days. From April 2001 to date SSA performance is expressed in terms of actual average clearance times (AACT), i.e. the cumulative number of days taken to clear the claim divided by the total number of claims processed.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

208587; 429 c1096W

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Disability living allowance Applications Administrative delays Jobseeker's allowance Income support Incapacity benefit Northern Ireland Social security benefits Standards Social Security Agency

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk