The available information is in the following tables.
Caseload (Thousand) May 1997 10.00 May 1998 9.40 May 1999 9.00 May 2000 10.23 May 2001 10.43 May 2002 10.80 May 2003 11.30 May 2004 11.74 May 2005 12.13 May 2006 12.05
£ million 1996-97 34 1997-98 33 1998-99 32 1999-2000 36 2000-01 36 2001-02 38 2002-03 40 2003-04 42 2004-05 45 2005-06 46 Notes: 1. Expenditure figures are rounded to the nearest million. 2. Caseload figures prior to May 2000 are rounded to the nearest hundred, and to the nearest 10 thereafter. 3. IB/SDA claimant figures include all IB and SDA (including IB credits only cases). 4. Caseload figures prior to May 2000 have been produced using 5 per cent. data and rated up proportionally using 100 per cent. WPLS totals. Source: DWP Information Directorate, Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study, 100 per cent. data—May 2000 onwards IAD Information Centre five per cent samples - May 1997 to May 1999
The numbers of people living abroad and receiving incapacity benefit remain at a very low level, representing less than half of 1 per cent. of the total number of people in receipt of incapacity benefits throughout the period from 1997 to 2006.
Those living abroad and receiving incapacity benefit must also satisfy the requirements of repeated medical assessments to establish their continuing entitlement to the benefit.
No such estimate has been made as the information is not available.
The available information is in the following table and represents the minimum numbers and proportions of people who satisfy the given criteria.
People reaching the first anniversary on incapacity benefit April 2003 to March 2004PercentageTotalAged 25-49Aged 50 and overIn work one year later1341,80019,48018,070In work two years later1752,88026,20020,920 Notes:1. Data on employment are available to 26 November 2006. As such, the latest operational year of new claimants for which (a) and (c) are answerable is April 2004 to March 2005, and the latest operational year of claims reaching their first anniversary for which (b) and (d) are answerable is April 2003 to March 2004 (and thus relates to people making a new claim during April 2002 and March 2003).2. The figures quoted in this response come from data in the national benefits database and the work and pensions longitudinal study (WPLS).3. Figures in this response are based upon periods of employment measured from the WPLS, which is based on data from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The figures given can only be taken as a minimum for the following (not necessarily comprehensive) reasons:(i) Some records show that a person started or ended employment at some point in the year, but the exact date when they started or left their job is unknown, and therefore we do not know if they were employed at the points in time specified in this query.(ii) If a person's earnings are sufficiently low that they fall below the lower income tax threshold and so are not required to pay PAYE income tax on their earnings then there is no requirement to inform HMRC of their employment (although some employers declare these jobs anyway).(iii) These data do not include the self-employed.(iv) Poor quality personal data may lead to missed matches with benefits data.(v) No ‘HMRC sensitive and secure’ information is supplied by HMRC (for example, HMRC employees, members of the security services).