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Family Credit

Mr. Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer of 24 November, Official Report, column 357, if he now has provisional figures for July 1995 for the numbers of people receiving the £10 weekly allowance with (i) family credit and (ii) disability working allowance for working more than 30 hours per week. [10176]

Mr. Heald: As at 31 July 1995, the number of family credit and disability working allowance recipients who were benefiting from the 30-hour premium was 25,000 and eight respectively. By 31 August 1995, the latest date available, these had risen to 87,000 and 45. Claimants working 30 hours or more a week, who were in receipt of benefit when the premium was introduced on 17 July 1995, will receive the additional benefit when they renew their claims.

Sources:
Family credit 5 per cent. sample of awards.
Disability working allowance 100 per cent. count of awards.

Disability Premium

Mr. Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the average amount of income support received by claimants who are entitled to the disability premium. [10134]

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Mr. Heald: At February 1995, the latest date for which figures are available, the average amount of income support received by claimants who are entitled to the disability premium was £58.94 a week.

Source:
Income Support Statistics Quarterly Enquiry February 1995.

Social Fund

Mr. Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many additional claims have been made to the social fund by ex-prisoners not in their own home. [10453]

Mr. Heald: The information is not available in the format requested. The available information about applications to the social fund by all ex-prisoners in Great Britain is in the table. The information relates to community care grants for 1995-96.

Month	Decisions	Refusals	Awards
April	3,229	1,762	1,467
May	2,637	1,418	1,219
June	2,525	1,319	1,206
July	2,181	1,155	1,026
August	2,127	1,083	1,044
September	2,146	1,156	990
October	2,085	1,078	1,007
November	2,057	1,057	1,000
December	1,689	790	899
Total	20,676	10,818	9,858

Housing Benefit

Mr. Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what steps have been taken to monitor the change in housing benefit regulations on the additional benefits claimed by prisoners on their release after losing their entitlement to housing benefit under the new regulations; [10451]

(2) how much has been saved in housing benefit since the implemention of the new regulations reducing the period of entitlement for prisoners' claims from 52 to 13 weeks. [10452]

Mr. Heald: New rules concerning the treatment of temporary absence from the home were introduced in housing benefit from April 1995. Information about the number of prisoners affected by the new rules will be available around the end of 1996. While benefit savings arising from the change to prisoners are estimated to be up to £10 million in a full year, the difficulty in quantifying behavioural effects prevents more robust estimates being made.

Mr. Gallie: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when he will publish his report of the review of the accuracy of housing benefit claims. [11314]

Mr. Lilley: I am today publishing the main report of this review which shows that housing benefit fraud costs the taxpayer £1 billion a year. I have arranged for copies to be placed in the Library. I am grateful to the 52 local authorities and their staff who carried out the field work. The results establish for the first time the amount of loss through fraud, abuse and error and indicate where the highest risks of such losses lie.

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This level of fraud is clearly unacceptable. Local authorities which are not putting effort into tackling fraud and abuse must address the problem urgently. We already give local authorities financial incentives to detect fraud, rewarding success and penalising those who do too little. The success of this scheme has doubled savings from £92 million in 1993-94 to £171 million in 1994-95.

It is the responsibility of each local authority to protect taxpayers' money and not allow fraud to go unchecked. The results of the new review will enable them to concentrate their efforts on high risk categories of claimants and tenants.

Using this information, I am developing a five-year strategy which will crack down on this unacceptable level of fraud effectively and efficiently.

I will be strengthening the financial incentives for local authorities to detect fraud by increasing the rewards for success and the penalties for those who do too little.

I will be making funds of up to £10 million available specifically to enable local authorities to develop innovative ideas to tackle fraud.

I will be launching a national register of housing benefit and council tax benefit. This will match data across local authorities against departmental fraud detection systems--catching people claiming from more than one local authority.

We will be working closely with the Audit Commission to tighten up local authority methods of preventing fraudulent claims getting into the system.

Income Support

Mr. Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people currently claiming income support with a disability premium are (a) single, (b) in a couple, (c) in a couple with children and (d) single with children. [10139]

Mr. Heald: The information is in the table:

	Number
Total number of income support recipients with the disability premium	722,000
Of which:
Single	534,000
Single with children	56,000
Single without children	477,000
Couples	189,000
Couples with children	108,000
Couples without children	80,000

Note:

Figures are rounded to the nearest thousand.

Source:

Income Support Statistics Quarterly Enquiry February 1995.

Benefit Levels

Mr. Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what are the average amounts currently payable to claimants of (a) severe disablement allowance, (b) unemployment benefit and (c) incapacity benefit. [10142]

Mr. Heald: The information is in the table:

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	£
Average weekly amount of severe disablement allowance(32)	44.60
Average weekly amount of unemployment benefit(33)	49.02
Average weekly amount of incapacity benefit (32), (34)	83.48

(32) Figure taken as at 31 May 1995, a small number of clerical cases were excluded from the sample.

(33) Figure taken as at 11 May 1995.

(34) Figure is an average of all the rates of incapacity benefit. A breakdown by amounts of short-term and the long-term 1B rates is not currently available.

Most recent figures from a 5 per cent. sample of claims to benefits in Great Britain taken from the relevant computer scans.

NATIONAL HERITAGE

Concessionary Television Licences

Mr. Cummings: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage how many people qualified for a concessionary television licence in each year since 1990 in the area covered by Easington district council. [9512]

Mr. Sproat [holding answer 15 January 1996]: The numbers of concessionary television licence beneficiaries in the Easington district council area for each financial year since 1990 were:

1990-91: 2,665
1991-92: 2,477
1992-93: 2,161
1993-94: 1,995
1994-95: 1,878
1995-96: 1,817 (to date).

WALES

Public Opinion Surveys

Mr. Dobson: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list all qualitative and quantitative research projects and surveys carried out for his Department into aspects of public attitudes and opinons (a) in general and (b) in relation to specific policy proposals in each of the past three years to December 1995, indicating for each project or survey (i) the date on which the research was commissioned, (ii) the amount which his Department spent, (iii) who carried out the research, (iv) the number of people surveyed or taking part, (v) the location and time scale and (vi) which individuals and organisations have been given access to the findings. [5976]

Mr. Hague [holding answer 14 December 1995]: The information requested is as follows. The total cost of the surveys listed was approximately £420,000. The cost of individual contracts is confidential.

In addition to the items listed, the Welsh Office commissions statistical surveys which sometimes include questions seeking the views of respondents. particular cases include the 1995 Welsh health survey, which contained some questions about public attitudes to services provided by the national health service and social services and the 1994 Welsh employer survey, which among other things, sought the views of employers on

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reasons for problems in filling vacancies and opinions of the service provided by various organisations. The marginal costs of including these questions in statistical surveys cannot readily be calculated. Reports on all such surveys are published.

Welsh office
The Patients Charter for Wales
To provide information on public view of the Charter prior to re-issue of the Charter in Summer 1994.
Research commissioned: February 1994.
Conducted by: Durdle Davies Business Research.
Number surveyed/taking part: 35.
Location: rural and coastal North Wales and an urban district of South Wales.
Timescale: two months.
Individuals/organisations given access to findings: internal use used within the Department.
The Patients Charter for Wales
To assess awareness and views on the Charter.
Research commissioned: January 1995.
Conducted by: Community Health Councils Wales Development Unit.
Number surveyed/taking part: 100.
Locations: Swansea and Caernarfon.
Timescale: two months.
Individuals/organisations given access to findings: All Community Health Councils in Wales.
Hospital and Ambulance Services
To assess ways in which the NHS performance tables could be made more user friendly and more easily understood by the general public.
Research commissioned: February 1995.
Conducted by: BJM Research and Consultancy Ltd.
Numbers surveyed/taking part: 70.
Location: Cardiff, Newport, Carmarthen, Bala, Bethesda.
Timescale: two months.
Individuals/organisations given access to findings: internal use within the Department.
Out of School Childcare Grant Initiative in Wales
Evaluation of the grant scheme in Wales.
Research commissioned: October 1995.
Conducted by: University of Glamorgan.
Numbers surveyed/taking part: 625.
Location: all Wales.
Timescale: four weeks.
Individuals/organisations given access to findings: final report yet to be produced.

Energy efficiency promotion
To assess effectiveness of energy efficiency promotion in Wales.
Research commissioned: January 1993.
Conducted by: William Battle and Associates.
Numbers surveyed/taking part: 286 companies.
Locations: all Wales.
Timescale: January to November 1993.
Individuals/organisations given access to findings: internal use the Welsh Office and the Department of the Environment.
Parents Charter
To assess awareness of the Charter.
Research commissioned: October 1994.
Conducted by: Beaufort Research.
Numbers surveyed/taking part: 1,021.

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Location: all Wales.
Timescale: November 1994.
Individuals/organisations given access to findings: copies of the report have been placed in the House of Commons Library
Research into bus-back advertising
To evaluate the effectiveness of bus-back advertising, both in general and in response to Drink-Drive advertising campaign.
Research commissioned: December 1993.
Conducted by: William Battle and Associates.
Numbers surveyed/taking part: 700.
Location: all Wales
Timescale: February-March 1994.
Individuals/organisations given access to findings: internal use in the Welsh Office and the Department of Transport.
Road safety education
To evaluate the effectiveness of theatre tours in road safety education.
Research commissioned: June 1994 (jointly with the Scottish Office).
Conducted by: The Scottish Council for Research in Education.
Numbers surveyed/taking part: 712 pupils.
Location: Dyfed.
Timescale: October 1994.
Individuals/organisations given access to findings: summaries given to county councils in Wales, the schools which took part and Dyfed-Powys police.
Generic prescribing and patients attitudes
To estimate the influence of generically written prescription by GPs.
Research commissioned: December 1992.
Conducted by: The Welsh School of Pharmacy.
Numbers surveyed/taking part: 750.
Locations: Mid Glamorgan and Gwent.
Timescale: December 1992--December 1993.
Individuals/organisations given access to findings: the NHS in Wales.
CADW: Welsh Historic Monuments Executive Agency
Visitor surveys of monuments in state care
To provide information on visitor origins, characteristics and economic status; and to assess levels of satisfaction.
and to monitor satisfaction levels.
Research commissioned: Spring 1991.
Conducted by: Beaufort Research.
Numbers surveyed/taking part: 2,229.
Location: various monuments in Wales.
Timescale: July-August 1993.
Individuals/organisations given access to findings: findings are in the public domain.
Visitor surveys of monuments in state care
To provide up to date visitor profiles; to establish awareness of CADW and to monitor satisfaction levels.
Research commissioned. June 1994.
Conducted by Hall, Harrison and Cowley.
Numbers surveyed/taking part: 1,500 people.
Location: various monuments in Wales.
Timescale: August-September 1994; and August-September 1995.
Individuals/organisation given access to findings: findings are in the public domain.

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Visitor surveys of monuments in state care
To provide up to date profiles visitor profiles; to establish awareness of CADW and to monitor satisfaction levels.
Research commissioned: June 1994.
Conducted by: Hall Harrison and Cowley.
Numbers surveyed/taking part: 1,500 people.
Locations: various monuments in Wales.
Timescale: August-September 1995.
Individuals/organisations given access to findings: findings are in the public domain.

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