20. To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what projection he has made of the number of people who will have been claiming jobseeker's allowance for over 12 months by October 2009. (253043)

Of all new jobseeker’s allowance claims, over 50 per cent. leave within three months, and around 75 per cent. by six months, demonstrating the effectiveness of the JSA regime.

Based on the unemployment assumption published at the pre-Budget report, we estimate that in 2009-10 there will be an average of 190,000 claimants of jobseeker’s allowance who will have been claiming for over 12 months. These figures are planning assumptions only, and do not reflect an official view of numbers of unemployed people, or the duration of unemployment. They are based on the HM Treasury unemployment assumption, which is an average of several independent unemployment forecasts. An update to this assumption will be published at the Budget.

24. To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people aged between 18 and 24 years are claiming jobseeker’s allowance in (a) Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency and (b) the UK. (253048)

The number of 18 to 24-year-olds in the UK claiming jobseeker’s allowance in December 2008 was 355,300.

In Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey the number of 18 to 24-year-olds claiming jobseeker’s allowance was 315.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to the answers of 26 November 2008, Official Report, column 1997W, on jobseeker’s allowance, what research analysis his Department has undertaken on the proportion of time jobseeker’s allowance claimants spent (a) on benefits and (b) not on benefits or in work over a set period of time, including claimants with more than one benefit claim in the last five years. (243218)

[holding answer 15 December 2008]: The published research available is in the Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No. 394, ‘Repeat Jobseeker’s Allowance Spells by Hannah Carpenter’ (a copy of which has been placed in the Library), which found that 54 per cent. of people who claimed jobseeker’s allowance between July 2003 and June 2004 were repeat claimants. They had spent an average one year out of the previous four on jobseeker’s allowance, although the length of spells on benefit varied widely. A quarter of repeat claimants had been on other benefits in the previous four years.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what the highest number of repeat claims made for jobseeker’s allowance is; (249363)

The information is not routinely collected and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have claimed jobseeker’s allowance for (a) five, (b) six, (c) seven, (d) eight, (e) nine and (f) 10 or more years. (249364)

The available information is in the table.