The number of households in receipt of pension credit in East Dumbartonshire at February in each of the years requested is in the following table.
Date Household Recipients February 2004 2,000 February 2005 2,320 February 2006 2.470 Notes: 1. Caseloads are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the 2005 postcode directory and are therefore based on the 2005 parliamentary boundaries. 3. Household recipients are those people who claim pension credit either for themselves only or on behalf of a household. Source: DWP 100 per cent. Department for Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study.
The most recent number of households receiving pension credit in the East Dunbartonshire constituency are in the following table.
Date Household Recipients May 2006 2,460 Notes: 1. These figures are early estimates. The preferred data source for figures supplied by DWP is the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS). However, the figures provided are the latest available figures which are taken from the GMS scan at 26th May 2006. These are adjusted using the historical relationship between WPLS and GMS data to give an estimate of the final WPLS figure. 2. Caseloads are rounded to the nearest 10. 3 Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant postcode directory. 4. Household recipients are those people who claim pension credit either for themselves only or on behalf of a household. Source: DWP 100 per cent. data from the Generalised Matching Service (CMS) Pension Credit scan taken as at 26th May 2006.
The average time taken to process applications for pension credit in each year since its introduction is detailed in the following table.
Year end Average actual clearance time 2003-04 12.31 days 2004-05 10.30 days 2005-06 8.74 days
The information requested is not available.
I refer the hon. Member to the response I gave to the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) on 18 April 2006, Official Report, column 431W.