Benefit Claims

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many claims there have been for each benefit administered by his Department in each year from 1996-97 to 2006-07; and if he will make a statement. (102252)

The available information is in the following tables. The figures are for claims made in each year and do not indicate the number of awards made.

*Claims received each year for benefits administered by DSS/DWP*
	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
Income support	¹—	¹—	1,387,384	1,372,849	1,490,281	1,273,061
Jobseeker's allowance	⁶1,308,016	2,919,810	2,990,416	2,873,256	2,671,505	2,530,253
Incapacity benefit	972,075	963,406	886,944	869,490	853,653	777,383
Severe disablement allowance⁵	60,946	29,643	26,716	28,743	29,619	5,451
Maternity allowance	¹—	¹—	52,097	47,516	45,751	45,654
Bereavement benefit	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	26,528
Bereavement payment	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	33,857
Widows payment	24,534	24,727	24,220	27,540	21,887	2,545
Widow's benefit	18,095	17,566	19,503	15,613	16,893	1,693
IIDB³ (Industrial accident)	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	5,759
IIDB³(Prescribed diseases)	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	10,690
IIDB³ (REA)	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	1,989
Pension credit	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—
State pension	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—
Attendance allowance	¹—	367,229	369,770	353,337	364,881	344,269
Disability living allowance	491,167	437,531	375,198	370,443	386,815	384,765
Carer's allowance	¹—	¹—	¹—	148,904	142,444	135,975
Community care grant	1,145,572	1,154,428	1,125,836	602,675	547,672	538,443
Budgeting loan	1,386,954	1,442,017	1,410,497	1,633,549	1,672,627	1,712,719
Crisis loan	963,044	1,027,313	1,102,917	1,257,199	1,256,813	1,290,293
Funeral payment	54,557	47,787	47,852	43,918	39,744	39,954
Sure Start maternity	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	165,615	205,513

*Claims received each year for benefits administered by DWP*
	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Income support	1,154,940	960,294	861,583	829,154
Jobseeker's allowance	2,536,351	2,314,388	2,122,140	2,201,321
Incapacity benefit	905,613	799,773	754,253	695,919
Severe disablement allowance⁵	1,089	698	613	555
Maternity allowance	68,548	71,683	72,881	75,798
Bereavement benefit	46,065	50,953	53,324	53,964
Bereavement payment	61,433	68,053	65,917	65,697
Widows payment	539	559	664	1,146
Widow's benefit	5,620	639	305	934
IIDB⁴ (Industrial accident)	16,933	20,654	19,014	18,937
IIDB⁴ (Prescribed diseases)	31,053	37,604	25,743	21,704
IIDB⁴ (REA)	4,661	3,652	2,915	2,176
Pension credit	496,317	1,177,394	802,248	434,924
State pension	696,468	731,319	742,474	786,346
Attendance allowance	¹—	422,142	393,889	413,807
Disability living allowance	¹—	¹—	427,551	432,962
Carer's allowance	¹—	232,068	234,804	249,916
Community care grant	570,906	575,547	569,810	577,050
Budgeting loan	1,697,664	1,684,836	1,623,107	1,639,141
Crisis loan	1,348,774	1,378,009	1,348,122	1,373,985
Funeral payment	67,953	71,492	69,599	67,834
Sure Start maternity	278,887	310,538	321,537	325,641
¹ No information available. This is because either data was not collected or the data is unreliable. ² IIDB = Industrial injuries disablement benefit. ³ IIDB figures do not include some claims from overseas. ⁴ REA = Reduced earnings allowance. ⁵ No new claims have been accepted for severe disablement allowance since April 2001; figures after this date represent claims which have been rebuilt. ⁶Jobseeker's allowance replaced unemployment benefit and income support for unemployed people on 7 October 1996. Therefore the figure for 1996-97 is a part year figure. Source: DWP management information data.

Volume 455: debated on Tuesday 16 January 2007