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Road Hauliers (Penalties)
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what payments have been received by his Department in respect of civil penalties imposed on road hauliers under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999; and if he will make a statement. [127353]
Mrs. Roche: As at midday on 20 June, a total of £24,000 had been received in respect of civil penalties imposed under the provisions of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. In addition, a total of £137,829.70 had been received by way of payment as security in order to secure the release of vehicles impounded under the provisions of the Act, and a further £5,933.10 had been received in respect of detention of those vehicles and related expenses.
Spiritual Healers Charitable Trust
Mr. Tredinnick: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions he has had with the Charity Commission about the proposed registration of the National Federation of Spiritual Healers Charitable Trust Ltd. as a charity; and if he will make a statement. [126472]
Mr. Boateng: None. The Charity Commission is answerable to the High Court for its legal decisions and its interpretation of charity law. Registration is not a matter for the Home Office.
Home Detention Curfew
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many category A prisoners were released on the home detention curfew scheme up to 31 May; what offences each committed and what was the (a) sentence received, (b) sentence served and (c) time spent on the scheme in each case; if any breached the conditions of the curfew, had their licence revoked or re-offended while on the scheme; and if he will make a statement. [126907]
Mr. Boateng [holding answer 20 June 2000]: As of 31 May 2000, no category A prisoners were placed on the home detention curfew scheme.
SOCIAL SECURITY
Winter Fuel Payments
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security for what reasons 24 September was chosen as the cut-off for the winter allowance for 2000-01. [126045]
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Angela Eagle: To ensure people receive their winter fuel payments in good time to contribute to winter fuel bills, the qualifying week must precede the onset of winter. The week of 18 to 24 September will be used as the qualifying week for the coming winter to ensure that the correct payments can be made before Christmas, in good time to contribute to winter fuel bills. The process for identifying eligible people and determining the amount payable takes around 10 weeks. This allows for completion of the enormous task whereby around 11.5 million people who are now eligible for winter fuel payments are either identified from our records, or through a claims process.
If there were an entitlement provision for those people who had reached age 60 after the qualifying week, greater complexity would be brought to the scheme. The administration process of establishing the eligibility of all those who claimed, by checking age and household circumstances, would take a great deal of time and would add significant expense.
The current approach ensures all those eligible, particularly the oldest, get a significant and well timed payment. Clearly, there will be people who just miss out, but this would happen even if both a qualifying week and mop-up period were used, since the mop-up period would need to end at some point. We believe it has struck the right balance between providing help to the great majority of older people and ensuring that the payments can be made in time for the coldest weather.
Housing Benefit
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is his Department's estimate of the annual costs of increasing the earnings disregard for Housing Benefit claimants by (a) £5 per week for a single person aged under 65 years and (b) by £10 for a household with children. [126435]
Angela Eagle: The information is in the table.
| Cost in 2000-01 | |
|---|---|
| Increase the Housing Benefit earnings disregard by £5 per week for a single person aged under 65 years | 15 |
| Increase the Housing Benefit earnings disregard by £10 per week for a family with children | 70 |
Notes:
1. Based on the 1997-98 Family Resources Survey and Housing Benefit administrative/forecast data.
2. Costs are rounded to the nearest £5 million.
3. The estimates do not take into account any behavioural effect that may be caused by these measures.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what would be the annual cost of disregarding child maintenance from housing benefit calculations (a) for all claimants and (b) for claimants also receiving working families tax credit. [126434]
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Angela Eagle: We estimate that the cost of fully disregarding maintenance payments in Housing Benefit would be about £20 million a year. This includes an estimate for the cost for cases who would become newly entitled as a result of the full disregard.
The cost of fully disregarding maintenance payments in Housing Benefit (HB) for claimants who receive working families tax credit is also about £20 million a year.
- Notes:
- 1. Cost for existing claims based on data taken from May 1998 HBMIS dataset, a 1 per cent. survey of HB claims.
- 2. Cost for cases who become newly entitled is calculated from data taken from 1996-97 Family Resources Survey uprated to 2000-01 prices, benefits and earnings levels.
- 3. Costs and Caseloads are calibrated to forecast caseloads for 2000-01. The cost has been rounded to the nearest £10 million.
- 4. This cost will include a small element of spousal maintenance.
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer of 15 June 2000, Official Report, column 713W, on housing benefit, what average time is taken to process the housing benefit claims dealt with by Chelmsford Borough Council that are not dealt with within the 14 day guidelines. [127205]
Mr. Rooker: The information requested is not currently available. However, under the Best Value regime introduced from April 2000, local authorities are required to submit data on the average length of time taken to determine new claims. The first figures are expected to be available to the Department by autumn this year.
Single Payments
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will set out for each of the last three years before its abolition (a) the total amount spent on the single payments scheme and (b) the amount spent on each major category of item for which such grants were available. [125285]
Angela Eagle: Expenditure on the single payment scheme for the last three years before its abolition is given in the Annual Report on the Social Fund 1988-89.
Statistical samples of single payments, by item, are given in the Supplementary Benefit Annual Statistical Enquiries, 1986 and 1987.
The publications are available in the Library.
Benefit Information
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how he seeks to ensure easy access by all potential claimants to accurate benefit information; what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the complaints handling system in each division within his Department; and if he will make a statement. [125443]
Angela Eagle: We are modernising the way DSS services are delivered and restructuring the Department to provide a comprehensive, dedicated service focused on the needs of our key client groups: pensioners, working age people and children. Our programme includes initiatives to provide better information and effective systems for complaints and redress, if things go wrong.
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Key improvements in quality and accessibility of information about benefits include:
- Benefits Agency leaflets have been redesigned making them clearer, easier to follow and more tailored to customers needs;
- information on benefits is now available in bilingual/Welsh, eight ethnic minority languages, large print, audiocassette and Braille;
- the new Pensions Direct teleservice means we can take claims and deal with queries over the telephone;
- through the New Deals and the ONE service we are providing one-to-one personal help and advice on jobs, training, child care and other services, as well as information on benefits;
- an improved Departmental website due to be launched shortly will provide customers with easy access to benefit information and in the future will enable them to contact us electronically.
- from July 2000 a new system will be introduced in Benefits Agency which will help us reduce complaints handling time;
- the Child Support Agency and War Pensions Agency have each recently introduced an independent body to review complaints.
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