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Mr. Heald: The estimated cost of the employment of Ernst and Young to work in partnership with fraud managers in the Benefits Agency for a period of 12 months is £525,000. The two areas taking part are West Mercia and Manchester. This partnership will examine work processes, information technology and management of fraud investigations. What we learn from this partnership will be applied across the whole of the Benefits Agency, helping further to increase the productivity of its fraud investigation services and to target resources more effectively.
Disability Living Allowance
Mr. Clelland: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security approximately how many blind or partially sighted people have appealed to the disability appeal tribunal against the disability living allowance unit's decision not to award them the middle rate of the DLA care component since 14 October 1994. [40892]
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: The information is available only at disproportionate cost.
Temporary and Part-time Staff
Mr. Ian McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many staff are currently employed in his Department and in related agencies on (a) temporary or casual employment contracts and (b) part-time employment contracts, given as an actual figure and a proportion of the total workforce; and what were the corresponding figures for five years ago. [41122]
Mr. Burt: Breakdowns by Department and executive agency for 1 April 1995 of the number of permanent staff, the number of casual staff--normally those engaged for a period of up to 12 months, but, exceptionally, up to two years--and of the number of part-time staff are presented in the civil service staff in post summary table for 1 April 1995, a copy of which is in the Library. Estimates on a comparable basis for 1 April 1990 have also been placed in the Library.
National Insurance Contributions
Mr. Robert McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what would be the extra return to the Exchequer resulting from removing the upper limit on
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employees' national insurance contributions; and what proportion of employers' national insurance contributions that would represent if their gross national insurance contributions were reduced by that amount overall. [40907]Mr. Heald: The additional return and proportion of employers' national insurance contributions would be about £3.1 billion and 12.8 per cent. respectively in Great Britain for 1995 96 in a full year, if the upper limit on employees' NICs was removed, but an upper earnings limit at current levels remained in place for the purposes of calculating contracted -out rebates. Information for Northern Ireland is a matter for my right hon. Friend and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
Source: Government Actuary's Department.
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what is his policy towards the introduction of exemptions from national insurance contributions for employers of seafarers; [41596] (2) if he will list the European countries which (a) exempt and (b) do not exempt seafarers employers from national insurance contributions. [41597]
Mr. Heald: Exemptions for this or any other group of employers would be contrary to the principle of universal contribution liability for universal benefit coverage on which the national insurance scheme is based. The information in the table shows that most European countries do not exempt seafarers' employers from contribution liability. We are, however, aware of the concerns expressed by the shipping industry about their national insurance position and these are being considered.
European Countries which (a) exempt and (b) do not exempt seafarers employers from national insurance contributions
(a) Exempt
Denmark
Portugal
(b) Not exempt
Belgium
Luxembourg
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Netherlands
Norway
Spain
Switzerland
United Kingdom
Notes:
1. Exemption applies only in respect of crews of ships on the second register.
2. Contributions are refunded to employers in respect of crews of ships on the second register.
Asylum Seekers
Mr. Chris Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the total weekly cost of benefits paid to those awaiting determination of their application for asylum in the United Kingdom as at 12 October. [41497]
Mr. Roger Evans: The latest figures available are in the November 1994 quarterly statistical inquiry. This indicates there were about 42,000 asylum seekers in
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receipt of income support. The estimated cost of income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit payments to those people was about £5 million per week. The information is not available for other benefits.Parliamentary Ombudsman
Mr. Chris Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security in how many cases his Department or its agencies has been criticised by the parliamentary ombudsman since 1979. [41253]
Mr. Burt: The information is in the table.
|Complaints not
|upheld but
|Complaints |department
Year |upheld |criticised |Total
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1979 |42 |15 |57
1980 |50 |9 |59
1981 |53 |16 |69
1982 |26 |34 |60
1983 |29 |44 |73
1984 |38 |41 |79
1985 |42 |29 |71
1986 |48 |33 |81
1987 |40 |37 |77
1988 |33 |25 |58
1989 |36 |23 |59
1990 |38 |47 |85
1991 |48 |32 |80
1992 |52 |36 |88
1993 |68 |19 |87
1994 |62 |25 |87
Widow's Benefit
Sir Anthony Durant: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the number of widows in receipt of widow's benefit excluding those receiving widow's bereavement allowance as at March. [41612]
Mr. Heald: The information is not available in the format requested. The number of widows in receipt of widow's benefit at March 1995 is 290,000 . The number of widows in receipt of widow's bereavement allowance in the 1995 96 tax year is 70,000 .
Source:
1. DSS Statistics
2. Inland Revenue Statistics
War Pensions
Mr. Patrick Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list those councils in Norfolk which allow war pensioners and war widows to keep all their war pension even if they are receiving benefits and those which do not. [40114]
Mr. Heald: The following local authorities in Norfolk have advised me that they operate local schemes which disregard war pensions in full when calculating entitlement to housing benefit and council tax benefit: North Norfolk, King's Lynn and West Norfolk, Breckland and Broadland.
Great Yarmouth, South Norfolk and Norwich city have advised that they do not operate such a local scheme.
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Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how much, on average, war pensions have changed in real value since the new guidelines for determining housing and council tax benefit were introduced. [41605]
Mr. Heald: Since the introduction of the revised housing benefit scheme in April 1988, the basic weekly rate of war disablement pension payable in respect of a 100 per cent. disabled private soldier, and equivalent, has increased from £67.20 to £101.10. If increased only in line with the retail prices index, the estimated current rate would be £95.30 per week.
The basic weekly rate of war widow's pension payable to the widow of a private soldier, and equivalent, has increased from £67.20 to £76.35. Increases in line with RPI alone would have produced an estimated current rate of £75.85 a week.
In addition, since April 1990, most war widows have received a fully upratable supplementary pension--originally £40 a week, currently £49.77--which is totally disregarded for housing benefit and council tax benefit purposes.
Incapacity Benefit
Mr. Heppell: To ask the Secretary of Social Security what extra provision is and will be provided for the existing claimants who will lose benefit due to the change to incapacity benefit from invalidity benefit over the first three years in which incapacity benefit is paid. [41962]
Mr. Burt: Unemployment benefit and income-related benefits such as income support are available to those who are no longer incapable of work and who are seeking and available for employment. In addition, significant extra resources have been made available to the Employment Service over the first three years to fund back-to-work help for those leaving incapacity benefit.
Disability Discrimination
Ms Lynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if children with learning difficulties who are currently attending special schools for children with learning difficulties will be automatically protected under the disability discrimination legislation. [41340]
Mr. Burt: The definition of disability in the Disability Discrimination Bill, subject to the provisions of schedule 1, provides that a person has a disability for the purposes of the Act if he has or has had a physical or mental impairment which has or had a substantial and long- term adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. Children who meet this definition will be protected by the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Bill and by complementary provisions of the Education Act 1993.
Ms Lynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many children with learning difficulties are estimated to be covered under the Disability Discrimination Bill. [41343]
Mr. Burt: Centrally maintained statistics are not kept in a form that will provide this information. The definition of disability in the Disability Discrimination Bill does not correlate directly with information held by the Department of Health about children who have learning disabilities,
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or to definitions used by the Department for Education and Employment to collect information about children with learning difficulties.Evidence from epidemiological studies suggest that there are about 30,000 children under the age of 16 in England with severe or profound learning disabilities, but others with a mild or moderate degree of learning disability.
Under the Education Act 1993, a child has special educational needs if he or she has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of that age. This difficulty in learning may be entirely unrelated to any disability. It has been estimated that up to one in five children may have special educational needs at some time in his or her school career.
In view of the existing comprehensive protection under the 1993 Act and code of practice on the identification and assessment of special educational needs, the House has agreed that education should be excluded from the scope of part III of the Bill. Subject to that, the other relevant provisions of the Disability Discrimination Bill will apply equally to children with special educational needs as to all other people.
Ms Lynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what financial assistance will be available for children with learning difficulties to enable legal action to be taken on their behalf under the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Bill. [41345]
Mr. Burt: The majority of actions taken under the new right of access will be via the small claims procedure, where the proceedings are informal, legal representation is not required and no costs can be awarded. Where actions are taken in open court of proceed to higher courts, legal aid will be available to children with learning disabilities provided they meet the normal means and merits tests. Children are assessed for legal aid according to their own means and not their parents. A child is therefore more likely to be financial eligible than an adult.
Child Support
Ms Lynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement in respect of the operational policy of the Department of Social Security liable relatives unit and the child support unit when arranging child maintenance from liable parents. [41779]
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: There was no liable relative unit as such: liable relative work formed part of the operation of DSS local offices. The aim of liable relative sections in those offices was to ensure that people liable to maintain their spouse, child or sponsored immigrant did so to the best of their ability, where possible removing the need for income support. The child support unit had similar aims but relating to child maintenance only.
Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security by how much the combined value of child benefit and child dependency increases would have to be raised in April 1996, in cash and percentage terms to restore them to their November 1979 values relative to prices and average earnings for (a) war widows and (b) other widows. [41640]
Mr. Mitchell: The information for values relative to prices is set out in the table.
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The same information for values relative to average earnings is not yet available.
War widows |Cash rise |Percentage rise
------------------------------------------------------------------
Eldest qualifying
child |£10.60 |43.4
Other children |£11.35 |48
Other widows
Eldest qualifying
child |£7.50 |37
Other children |£8.25 |42.3
Notes:
1. A higher rate of child benefit for the eldest child was
introduced in April 1991. Prior to that date all children were
paid at the same rate.
2. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5p.
3. The retail prices index, all items, as published by the
Central Statistical Office was used in the calculation.
Lone Parents
Ms Lynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how much his Department has spent on research into (a) lone-parent families and (b) absent parents, in each year since 1989. [41800]
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: The Department's research programme is announced each year. Details and overall costs of all projects are set out in the Department's research yearbook, published annually by HMSO, copies of which are available in the Library. Previous editions cover projects from 1989 onwards; the yearbook for 1994 95 will contain details of projects currently under way and will be published in December.
Income Support (Young People)
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what would be the cost in a full year of reintroducing income support payments for 16 to 17-year-olds. [41867]
Mr. Roger Evans: Information is not available to calculate the cost of reintroducing income support payments for 16 to 17-year-olds within normal estimating margins. The behaviourial factors are difficult to estimate; however, illustrative costs, based on a range of assumptions, are in the table:
Cost of restoring income support to 16 and 17-year-olds
£ million
|Benefits
|costs
Assumptions |1996-97
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
10 per cent. move from Education to Income Support |340
20 per cent. move from Education to Income Support |550
40 per cent. move from Education to Income Support |975
Notes:
1. Costs are derived from the movement of young people from education to
income support plus the cost of those who claim income support while
waiting for a youth training placement plus the costs of those who claim
income support who are not in education, training, nor employment.
2. In addition to assumptions regarding the movement from education to
income support, it is assumed that: all 16 and 17-year-olds move on to
income support from day one of the policy change; 15 per cent. of the
families of 16 and 17-year-olds in education are on income support; this
assumption is the basis for an
estimate of reduction in cost as a result of families losing entitlement
to dependency and other family benefits; half of the 16 and 17-year-olds
who claim income support move away from home and live independently and so
receive housing benefit; and half of the 16 and 17-year-olds are the only
children in their families.
3. The numbers of education and youth training are based on projections
for 1996-97.
4. The numbers not in education, training or employment are based on
information from the spring labour force survey and DSS benefit
statistics.
5. Costs have been rounded to nearest £5 million but are not accurate to
that degree.
Medical Reports
Mr. Kirkwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has to apply (a) the commitment given by his predecessor on 8 July 1988, Official Report , column 1355, during the passage of the Access to Medical Reports Act and (b) the provisions of the Access to Health Records Act 1990 to medical reports prepared by the Benefits Agency for its own use or that of an equivalent authority overseas; and if they will be available to, and may be corrected by, the subject of the report. [41997]
Mr. Roger Evans: It has for many years been the practice of the Department of Social Security to supply copies of medical reports in connection with claims to benefit at the request of the claimant, subject to any information which could be detrimental to the claimant's well-being removed.
In the event of an appeal against a decision made by the independent adjudicating authorities, copies of all reports are supplied to the claimant, again subject to withholding information as described above. If the claimant disagrees with the information in the reports, an appeal to the relevant tribunal is the means by which they can express their disagreement.
Nursing Home Residents
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what has been the annual cost of higher level income support payments to nursing home residents with preserved rights in each of the last three years (a) nationally, (b) regionally and (c) by area. [41943]
Mr. Roger Evans: Information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is set out in the table:
Annual cost of income support limits
for nursing home residents
£ million
|1992 |1993 |1994
--------------------------------------
England |1,071|1,184|916
Scotland |127 |132 |104
Wales |106 |100 |78
Great Britain |1,300|1,416|1,097
Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the
million. Due to rounding some of the
totals may not tally.
2. Estimated annual expenditure is
calculated by multiplying the number
of cases in May of each year by the
average weekly income support at the
enquiry date and then multiplying by
52.
Source:
Income support statistics residential
care/nursing home quarterly inquiries
May 1992-1994.
EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT
Apprenticeships
10. Mrs. Gorman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans the Government have to increase apprenticeships for school leavers. [40047]
Mr. Paice: The Government welcome employers' enthusiastic response to the modern apprenticeships initiative. We hope that approaching 30,000 trainees will be recruited in the current year.
Grant-maintained Schools
11. Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many pupils are currently educated in grant- maintained schools. [40049]
Mr. Robin Squire: More than 680,000 pupils are currently being educated in grant-maintained schools in England.
Primary School Class Sizes
12. Mr. Chris Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many primary school pupils in England are taught in classes of 36 or more; and if she will make a statement. [40051]
16. Mr. Connarty: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many primary school children are currently being taught in class sizes of more than 35. [40055]
Mr. Robin Squire: In January 1995 there were 108,000 primary school pupils taught in classes of 36 or more in England.
Economic Regeneration, Workington
13. Mr. Campbell-Savours: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what contribution her Department is able to make to local economic regeneration in Workington. [40052]
Mr. Forth: This Department makes a major contribution to the development of Workington through the activities of the Employment Service and Cumbria training and enterprise council.
Grammar Schools, Kent
14. Mr. Dunn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many grammar schools there are in Kent. [40053]
School Repairs
15. Mr. Heppell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans she has to deal with the backlog of repairs to schools. [40054]
Mrs. Gillan: It is up to individual local education authorities and governors to make their own plans for any repairs to schools.
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Standard Spending Assessments
17. Dr. Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will make it her policy to ensure that education standard spending assessments are adjusted fully to take into account increases in pay and prices and demographic changes. [40056]
Mr. Robin Squire: When determining the level of resourcing for education, the Government take into account the pressures on the education service, including projected trends in pupil numbers and inflation. But we also look at the scope which local authorities have for making efficiency savings and consider what the country can afford given the continuing need for restraint in public expenditure.
Primary School Standards
18. Sir Malcolm Thornton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what action she is taking to raise standards in primary schools. [40117]
Mrs. Gillan: The national curriculum and its assessment, national tests, regular inspections, improvements to teacher training and our improving schools programme all act to raise standards in primary schools. The chief inspector of schools has confirmed that our reforms are improving the quality of education.
Higher Education Review
19. Sir Fergus Montgomery: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what progress has been made on her review of higher education. [40118]
Mr. Forth: We consulted earlier in the year on the purpose of higher education and its future shape and size. Around 100 responses were received: copies have been placed in the Library. As my right hon. Friend announced at the beginning of July, a further consultative paper will be issued around the turn of the year.
Work Experience
20. Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans she has to give pupils at secondary schools the opportunity for direct experience in the workplace. [40119]
Mr. Paice: We have asked training and enterprise councils and their local partners to encourage work experience for pupils and have made funds available specifically to support it for all in their last year of compulsory schooling. The need for further action is being kept under review.
School Discipline
21. Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what measures the Government have taken to promote good discipline in school classrooms. [40120]
Mr. Robin Squire: My right hon. Friend announced on 27 September a range of initiatives to help schools combat the problem of disruptive pupils. These initiatives build on guidance on pupil behaviour and discipline sent to all schools, as part of the "Pupils with Problems" pack in May last year. We have also asked the consultative
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