Jobseeker's Allowance: Cumbria

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average length of a jobseeker's allowance claim by a person registered as unemployed in (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland constituency was in each of the last five years. (263792)

The information requested is shown in the following table.

*The median duration of Jobseeker's Allowance completed claims in the parliamentary constituency of Copeland and the County of Cumbria, for the last five years.*
	Copeland	Cumbria
	Number	Median	Number	Median
March 2004 - February 2005 (inclusive)	3,525	10.1	18,500	8.8
March 2005 - February 2006 (inclusive)	2,990	10.7	16,795	9.0
March 2006 - February 2007 (inclusive)	3,010	12.2	17,205	10.1
March 2007 - February 2008 (inclusive)	3,180	10.5	17,470	9.3
March 2008 - February 2009 (inclusive)	3,155	9.6	17,545	7.9
Notes: 1. Data are published at www.nomisweb.co.uk 2. Completed claims are rounded to the nearest five 3. Median is measured in number of weeks 4. Median is a better measure of “average” than arithmetic mean for skewed distributions such as duration of claim. Source: DWP WPLS 100 percent data

Volume 491: debated on Monday 20 April 2009