Jobseeker's Allowance

Mr. Lidington

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many people have claimed jobseeker's allowance in each quarter since April 2008. (320172)

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated March 2010:

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles monthly counts of the number of claimants of Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) from the Jobcentre Plus administrative system. Table 1 shows the number of people, resident in the United Kingdom, claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) at the end of each quarter since April 2008.

National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and claimant count are available on the NOMIS website at

http://www.nomisweb.co.uk

*Table 1: Number of persons claiming Jobseeker's Allowance resident in the UK Seasonally adjusted: United Kingdom*
	Thousand
June 2008	843.3
September 2008	956.7
December 2008	1,175.8
March 2009	1,455.9
June 2009	1,557.8
September 2009	1,626.6
December 2009	1,612.1
Source: Jobcentre Plus Administrative System

Volume 506: debated on Thursday 4 March 2010