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Written Answers to Questions
Thursday 6 April 2000
SOCIAL SECURITY
Departmental Employees
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what checks are applied to confirm the identities of new employees in his Department and its agencies. [117705]
Mr. Rooker: This Department undertakes rigorous recruitment checks on all staff prior to employment. The checks undertaken confirm not only identity, but character, nationality, right to work and employment suitability. Work is currently ongoing to identify, as part of the recruitment checking process, any possible conflicts of interest with new recruits.
To confirm identify, the checks follow the Cabinet Office guidance. The documentation required to do this vary according to nationality.
British Nationals require a full 10 year passport, or combination of two other identification documents.
EC nationals require either a full EC passport or an identity card issued by the EC country.
Commonwealth citizens require either a full passport issued by the country concerned or a document issued by the Home Office establishing the individual's immigration status in the UK.
Steps are taken to examine the documentation to verify its authenticity.
Assurance mechanisms for pre-appointment checks are built into our recruitment process. These include management checks to ensure they are being carried out and our internal audit team regularly carry out their own checks.
Mr. Webb:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if, he intends under the draft stakeholder pension regulations, the separate arrangement to charge for individual detached advice to be regarded as a pension contract; and if he will make a statement. [117600]
Mr. Rooker:
No. It is important that everyone considering a stakeholder pension understands and is confident that the only charge to be taken out of their pension fund will be within the 1 per cent. annual management charge. Schemes may offer financial advice within the 1 per cent. charge if they wish. The draft stakeholder pension regulations are designed to ensure that any contract for the provision of financial advice (and any other services apart from the management of the scheme and its funds) above the 1 per cent. limit must be optional and separate from the pension contract.
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Mr. Gerald Howarth:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many single mothers with dependent children are making pension contributions through (a) National Insurance, (b) SERPS and (c) private pension schemes; how many are making no such contributions; and if he will estimate his Department's unfunded liability, assuming present levels of pension payments, in (i) 2020, (ii) 2040 and (iii) 2060. [117530]
Mr. Rooker:
There are 2.2 million single mothers with dependent children making pension contributions through National Insurance. Of these 1.3 million (60 per cent. of those paying National Insurance) have private pension cover, while 0.9 million (the remaining 40 per cent. of those paying National Insurance) are contributing to SERPS. Around three million single mothers were making no pension contributions.
Mr. Willetts:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many pensioners have savings (i) below £3,000, (ii) between £3,000 and £6,000, (iii) below £6,000, (iv) between £6,000 and £12,000 and (v) between £12,000 and £47,100. [117703]
Notes:
1. The figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred thousand.
2. The percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole percent.
3. The analysis is restricted to working age employees.
4. The figures are based on the FRS which is a self-reporting survey. This may lead to an element of inaccuracy as people are not always clear about their pension arrangements.
Source:
Family Resources Survey 1997-98.
The estimated expenditure on National Insurance benefits for pensioners under current legislation is £51.7 billion in 2020-21, £64.8 billion in 2040-41 and £65.8 billion in 2060-61, in 1999-2000 price terms.
Notes:
1. The figures on pension payments refer to payments to all pensioners, not to single mothers only.
2. These figures refer to the expected expenditure on National Insurance benefits for pensioners in the specified years.
3. The estimates allow for the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 and exclude HRP in SERPS, but do not allow for any effects of S2P or Stakeholder Pensions.
4. Income related benefit expenditure on pensioners is not included in the estimates.
Source:
The Report by the Government Actuary on the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Bill, 1999.
| Categories | Number |
|---|---|
| Below £3,000 | 3,500 |
| Between £3,000 and £6,000 | 670 |
| Below £6,000 | 4,170 |
| Between £6,000 and £12,000 | 700 |
| Between £12,000 and £47,100 | 1,200 |
Notes:
1. All amounts are rounded to the nearest 10,000, although estimates are not necessarily accurate to that degree.
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Works of Art
Mr. Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how much has been spent on (a) the upkeep and (b) the purchase of works of art in his Department for each financial year since 1992. [117470]
Mr. Rooker: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer my hon. Friend the Minister for the Arts gave him on 4 April 2000, Official Report, columns 392-93W.
Income Support
Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if the three months' extension of the time limit for claiming Income Support will be allowed in the case where a pensioner's failure to claim earlier can be ascribed to the delay in launching the Government's take-up campaign. [117591]
Mr. Bayley: We have no plans to change the current backdating rules.
Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
Mr. Goggins: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the accuracy of the annual industrial injuries disablement benefit assessment data for the 1998-99 financial year. [118548]
Mr. Bayley: A new model for forecasting caseload and expenditure on Industrial Injuries Benefits has been developed. A comparison of encashment data with new expenditure forecasts for 1998-99 has identified an undercounting of around 6 per cent. in the number of assessments.
Future assessment forecasts have assumed that this 6 per cent. undercounting is constant over the forecast period.
Minimum Income Guarantee
Mr. McWalter: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what steps he is taking in the short term to tackle the problems faced by pensioners whose incomes are marginally above the Minimum Income Guarantee. [116628]
Mr. Bayley:
We have taken action over a wide front to help all of today's pensioners. Initiatives include Winter Fuel Payments, free eye tests to the over 60s and free TV licences for the over 75s from autumn next year. Also from April 2001, capital limits in the Minimum Income Guarantee for those over 60 will be increased from £6,000 to £12,000. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer has also announced a review
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to look at ways to providing further help to pensioners on low incomes and modest pensions and savings who have worked hard to provide for themselves.
Mr. Webb:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list the categories of pensioner who will receive letters as part of his Minimum Income Guarantee take-up campaign. [117873]
Mr. Bayley:
As part of the Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) take-up campaign we will be writing to around two million pensioners whom our records suggest are most likely to have underlying entitlement. This targeted group will be pensioners who our pension records suggest have incomes below the MIG level. However, we do not know how many of these pensioners will have capital or other income that could affect their entitlement to benefit.
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