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Departmental Officials
Mr. Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list the officials in his Department at Grade 3 and above with responsibility for retirement and widows' pension matters in the period 1986 to 1991. [117694]
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list (a) the officials in his Department at Grade 3 and above with responsibility for retirement and widows' pensions matters in the period 1986 to 1991 and (b) the capacities in which they are currently employed in the public service. [118222]
Mr. Darling: The officials in this Department at Grade 3 and above from 1986 to 1991 are a matter of public record in The Civil Service Year Books from 1986 on. These are available in the Library.
Minimum Income Guarantee
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the proportion of recipients of letters under his minimum income guarantee take-up campaign who are entitled to income support. [117870]
Mr. Rooker: As part of the Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) take-up campaign we will be writing to around 2 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
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do not know how many of these pensioners will have capital or other income that could affect their entitlement to benefit.
Pension Payment Methods
Laura Moffatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what arrangements he is putting in place to ensure that people in receipt of retirement pension paid through automatic credit transfer are paid on the date the pension is due. [118033]
Mr. Rooker: The frequency of payments is one of a number of issues to be considered on the move to payments by Automated Credit Transfer. No final decisions have yet been taken, but we will ensure that the new arrangements from 2003 continue to meet people's needs. In particular, we recognise that many pensioners will expect to be able to continue to be paid weekly.
Mortgage Interest
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what discussions have taken place between his Department and mortgage lenders to ensure that when mortgage interest is paid by the Department the borrower pays interest on the most favourable terms available from the mortgage lender. [118649]
Angela Eagle: There have been no discussions between this Department and mortgage lenders with regard to favourable interest rates. The Department calculates mortgage payments based on a standard interest rate that is calculated by the Building Societies Commission. A mortgage contract is between the lender and the borrower, with no involvement from this Department.
Benefits (Crosby)
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people over the age of 65 do not claim (a) a state pension and (b) other state benefits in the Crosby constituency. [118682]
Mr. Rooker: The information requested is not available at constituency level. If my hon. Friend has a particular problem perhaps she will write to me.
Widowers' Benefits
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer of 30 March 2000, Official Report, column 272W, on widowers' benefits, for what reason the ex gratia payment was made. [118664]
Angela Eagle: An offer of ex gratia payments was made to a widowed father by way of friendly settlement of his case before the European Court of Human Rights.
Earnings Top-up Pilot
Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many workers in the City of Newcastle upon Tyne are receiving benefits under the Earnings Top-Up pilot; what is the value of these benefits; what numbers of (a) women and (b) men are receiving the top-up; how many of these women and men are working part-time and do not have the care of children; and when the benefit will cease. [117877]
Angela Eagle: The information is in the table.
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The three-year Earnings Top-Up pilot began in October 1996 and finished as planned at the end of September this year. No new claims for Earnings Top-Up have been accepted since 28 September 1999. However, people in
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receipt of Earnings Top-Up at the time the pilot ended are allowed to claim one further six-month award. This means that some people could continue to receive Earnings Top-Up until 25 September 2000.
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| Weekly hours worked | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All cases | Under 30 hours | 30 hours or more | ||||
| Cases | Average ETU (£) | Cases | Average ETU (£) | Cases | Average ETU (£) | |
| All cases | 1,781 | 26.98 | 1,176 | 25.36 | 605 | 30.13 |
| All women | 911 | 23.44 | 699 | 23.35 | 212 | 23.76 |
| All men | 870 | 30.68 | 477 | 28.30 | 393 | 33.57 |
Notes:
1. As Earnings Top-Up was a pilot of an in-work benefit for people without dependent children no one with the care of children would have been eligible for it. Such families would have been able to claim Working Families Tax Credit.
2. Based on 100 per cent. caseload figures.
3. Figures are unrounded.
Source:
Earnings Top-Up Statistical Enquiry, March 2000.
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Primary Carers (Crosby)
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people over the age of 65 were primary carers in the Crosby constituency in each of the years from 1994 to 1997. [118681]
Angela Eagle: The information requested is not available.
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State Pension
Mr. Fitzpatrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to the oral statement by the Minister of State of 3 April 2000, Official Report, columns 624-25, on the state pension, if he will give a breakdown for the figure of £800 million. [118801]
Mr. Darling: The information is in the table and shows an annual breakdown of the amount spent on Winter Fuel Payments and on earnings-uprating the MIG, over and above what the cost of earnings-uprating the basic state pension would have been.
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| 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Fuel Payment (a) | 200 | 200 | 760 | 1,380 | 1,210 |
| MIG (b) | -- | -- | 410 | 700 | 1,090 |
| Total (c = a+b) | 200 | 200 | 1,170 | 2,080 | 2,300 |
| RP earnings-uprated since April 1998 (d) | -- | 130 | 610 | 1,580 | 1,860 |
| Extra spending (c-d) | 200 | 70 | 560 | 500 | 440 |
| Cumulative extra spending | 200 | 270 | 830 | 1,330 | 1,770 |
Notes:
1. Rounded to the nearest £10 million.
2. Costs are in 1999-2000 terms.
3. Some figures do not appear to sum. This is due to rounding.
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Winter Fuel Payments
Gillian Merron: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when he will make an announcement about the payment of Winter Fuel Payments following the European Court judgment of 16 December 1999. [118811]
Mr. Darling: Following the European Court of Justice's ruling on Winter Fuel Payments last December, I announced the Government's intention to equalise, at 60, the age at which payments could be made. I also said that it would be necessary to set up a claims process to make sure that the right people got the right amount of Winter Fuel Payment due.
The arrangements are as follows:
- We want to ensure that people entitled to payments for past winters will receive those payments as soon as practically possible. The plan is to make them from the end of June onwards and payments for this coming winter before Christmas 2000.
- Around 50,000 people, who think they may now be eligible for a backdated payment, have already registered their details with the
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- Department. We will be writing to them in the next few weeks with a claim form for completion.
- Over a five week period starting in May, we will also be writing to over two million people, who we think are eligible, to invite them to make a claim. There is no need for anyone to do anything now.
- People who think they are eligible will also be able to download claim forms from the Department's own website, www.dss.gov.uk, or they will be able to obtain them, on request, from the Winter Fuel Payment helpline. The helpline number is 08459 15 15 15.