To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security in the first two quarters of 1996–97 how many claimants of income support (a) applied for and (b) received hardship payments; and what percentage of all sanctioned claimants received a payment in the categories (i) voluntary unemployment or result of misconduct, (ii) availability for work, (iii) actively seeking work, (iv) refusing employment and (v) refusing or failing to attend project work. [7728]

	Quarter ending May 1996		Quarter ending August 1996
Reason	Applications	Awards	Applications	Awards
Not available for work	2,985	1,432	2,828	1,238
Not actively seeking work	1,702	469	1,415	412

Prior to the introduction of jobseeker's allowance claimants who were refused income support because of voluntary unemployment or misconduct or who refused employment or training did not lose their entitlement to income support but had a voluntary unemployment deduction imposed instead. The information for these individual categories is not available, but the table gives the overall numbers who had a voluntary unemployment deduction imposed.