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Housing Benefit
Mr. Rendel: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many housing benefit claims, in the last year for which figures are available, were subject to each rate of non-dependant deduction; at each rate how many claimants were living in (a) local authority properties, (b) housing association properties and (c) private properties; and what each figure represents as a percentage of total housing benefit claims. [77325]
Angela Eagle:
The information is set out in the tables.
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| Deduction | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All cases | £7.00 | £16.00 | £22.00 | £36.00 | £41.00 | £45.00 | |
| Total | 187 | 121 | 19 | 17 | 10 | 6 | 14 |
| Local authority | 138 | 92 | 14 | 13 | 8 | 4 | 9 |
| Housing association | 28 | 18 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Private tenants | 21 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 1 | .. | 3 |
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Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest thousand, percentages to one decimal place.
2. Recipients may be a single person or a couple.
3. "--" denotes nil or less than 0.1 per cent.
4. ".." denotes less than 500 cases.
5. Cases with more than one non-dependant deduction appear in the table once with only the first occurrence of a deduction being counted. The order of preference for this analysis is with the lowest deduction first.
6. Cases where the claimant or partner receives Attendance Allowance have been excluded.
Source:
Housing Benefit Management Information System, Annual 1 per cent. sample enquiries.
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Mr. Rendel:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security on what subjects, other than employment opportunities, advice will be provided by the Single Gateway personal advisers. [77426]
Angela Eagle:
The Personal Advisers' prime purpose will be to help clients explore ways in which they can overcome barriers that prevent participation in the labour market. However, the role will encompass much more than this. They will advise claimants on benefit entitlement, including any current welfare needs, and provide the first point of contact for any queries or difficulties. They will also help individuals gain access to a range of services, such as childcare provision, specialist counselling, housing support and training, and will be able to provide clients with information about their potential eligibility for in-work benefits so that clients can understand what their income levels might be if they moved into employment.
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Mr. Rendel:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what training will be given to the personal advisers who will conduct the new Single Gateway interviews; and if this training will be specific to particular claimant groups. [77429]
Angela Eagle:
We are producing a programme of learning to ensure that all Personal Advisers will be able to provide advice, guidance and counselling to help clients identify and overcome their barriers to employment, and also to provide clients with access to a variety of help and information on work, benefits and services.
The programme will ensure that Personal Advisers have the necessary balance of skills in order to deal with a wide range of clients in differing circumstances, and will not be specific to particular client groups. This will be achieved through the active involvement in the programme of organisations with an understanding of the difficulties faced by different client groups, for example, carers and lone parents.
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Mr. Rendel:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security at what grade the personal advisers who will conduct the new Single Gateway interviews will be recruited. [77428]
Angela Eagle:
Three partner organisations are working together to deliver the Single Work-Focused Gateway service. Each have their own banding or grading structure but the Personal Adviser post will be broadly equivalent to Executive Officer grade.
Mr. Rendel:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what targets the Government have set in order to evaluate the success nationwide of the Single Gateway interview. [77427]
Angela Eagle:
Single Work-Focused Gateway will be piloted in a range of different labour markets. The evaluation of these pilots will allow us to assess the potential impact of Single Work-Focused Gateway should it be extended nationwide.
Mr. Rendel:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what reviews will be carried out, and which evaluation measures will be used, in assessing the success of the pilots of the Single Gateway. [77425]
Angela Eagle:
The Single Work-Focused Gateway will be fully evaluated. The evaluation will compare the outcomes of participants in the pilot areas with those for similar people from other, comparable areas. The evaluation will use a range of standard evaluation techniques--quantitative and qualitative analysis, operational research, and cost-benefit analysis.
Mr. Rendel:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what changes to working practices in the Benefits Agency and the Employment Service will be required in order to implement the Single Gateway. [77430]
Angela Eagle:
All partners involved in the Single Gateway (Employment Service, Benefits Agency and Local Authorities) will deal with both a wider range of clients and with a wider range of issues affecting those clients. This will necessitate much closer working relationships, including improved communications; management arrangements and Information Technology links.
Existing business processes will be affected and work is currently underway to identify these, in particular the need for business information flows between the partners and effective integration between the new Personal Adviser service and existing processes. Changes to staff locations and office layout are also likely to be required--depending on local delivery arrangements--and work is also underway to identify these changes.
Mr. Rendel:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has for additional information technology resources following the introduction of the new Single Gateway. [77431]
Angela Eagle:
The proposed design for the pilot exercises is based on extensions of, and where possible some development of, existing Employment Service, Benefits Agency and other systems. It is based on providing support to the generic Single Gateway Process Model and comprises extending access to current systems into the basic model pilot sites. These are the Employment
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Services' Labour Market and Employment Service Communications Systems, and the DSS' Operational Strategy and Integrated Benefit Information Systems.
Taken together, these changes will form the "core IT" upon which further enhancements and support for the Call Centre and Private/Voluntary Sector variants will be developed. As the pilots develop, and when decisions are taken whether to proceed to national implementation, more longer-term solutions will be developed and implemented.
Mr. Maclean:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the estimated cost of housing benefit fraud in each of the last 10 years. [76437]
Mr. Timms:
Information about Housing Benefit fraud is not available for each of the last ten years. The first Housing Benefit Accuracy Review in 1995 estimated annual losses from fraud and strongly suspected fraud to be £905 million. The equivalent estimate from the second Review in 1997-98 is £600 million. However, due to the different methodology used in each review, it is not possible to state with an acceptable level of statistical certainty that there has been a decrease in the level of fraud and suspected fraud.
Note:
Conclusions about the level of incorrect Housing Benefit payments were derived from a sample of claims. For the Housing Benefit reviews, 95 per cent. confidence limits were calculated for each of the estimates. (£500 million to £1,300 million for the 1995 Review estimate and £410 million to £820 million for the 1997-98 Review estimate). These limits indicate the range within which it can be 95 per cent. certain that the true value for all Housing Benefit claims lie.
Sources:
Housing Benefit Review 1995 (DSS)
Housing Benefit Accuracy Review 1997-98 (GSS).
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