The overall social security caseload in February fell 0.4% over January, to 293,000, with the number of jobless cases down 1.3% to 36,887, the Social Welfare Department says.

Low earnings cases decreased 0.8% to 18,007. Single parent cases also fell 0.4% to 38,271. The number of ill health, old age and permanent disability cases fell 0.3%, 0.2% and 0.1% over January, to 24,243, 152,431 and 17,976.

Among the 293,000 cases, old age accounted for 51.9%. This was followed by single parent and jobless cases, at 13% and 12.6%.

Total government expenditure on social security payments was about $17.8 billion for 2005-06.