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SCOTLAND
Volunteers
Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will mark next year's International Year of Volunteers by spending a day working as a volunteer. [137436]
Dr. Reid: I fully support the aims of the International Year of Volunteers. Everyone benefits from volunteering and the Prime Minister has issued a challenge to employers to give their employees paid time off to work in the community.
WALES
Prison/Police Services
Mr. Wigley: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will introduce legislation to devolve responsibility for the police service and for the prison service in Wales from the Home Office to the National Assembly for Wales. [138026]
Mr. Paul Murphy: No. The Government have no plans to transfer additional functions to the National Assembly.
Volunteers
Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will mark next year's International Year of Volunteers by spending a day working as a volunteer. [137439]
Mr. Paul Murphy: I fully support the aims of the International Year of Volunteers. Everyone benefits from volunteering and the Prime Minister has issued a challenge to employers to give their employees paid time off to work in the community. I intend to spend some time volunteering during 2001.
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SOCIAL SECURITY
Carers
13. Barbara Follett: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what steps he is taking to help young carers. [136120]
Mr. Bayley: Social Security benefits are available for carers aged 16 and over. This means that measures recently announced, such as the increase in the Invalid Care Allowance earnings limit, the increase in carer premium and the extension of entitlement to Invalid Care Allowance for up to eight weeks after the disabled person dies, will help young carers, as well as others.
36. Mr. Gareth R. Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what further action he is taking to support carers. [136144]
Mr. Bayley: We recently announced steps to improve financial support for carers. We intend to:
- Increase the carer premium in the Income Related benefits by £10 a week on top of next year's inflation uprating;
increase the earnings limit in Invalid Care Allowance from £50 a week to the National Insurance Lower Earnings Limit, currently £67 per week;
allow ICA to continue for up to eight weeks after the death of the person being cared for;
allow claims to ICA to be made from people aged 65 and over which will assist carers whose State pension is less than the rate of ICA and those who receive the Minimum Income Guarantee.
Tribunals
14. Mr. Rendel: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what measures he has taken to ensure that tribunals which lie within his Department's responsibility meet the requirements of the Human Rights Act 1998 for independence. [136121]
Angela Eagle: My right hon. and noble Friend the Lord Chancellor appoints the panel members who sit on unified appeal tribunals within the Appeals Service. He introduced new administrative arrangements for judicial appointments, including part-time panel members, from 12 April 2000.
My right hon. and noble Friend the Lord Chancellor and my noble Friend the Lord Chief Justice consider that these arrangements put beyond reasonable doubt the safeguards guaranteeing the independence of judicial appointments.
Disability Benefits
17. Sir Teddy Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many persons have had their disability benefits cancelled over the most recent 12 month period for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [136124]
Mr. Bayley: About 170,000 awards of Disability Living Allowance and 285,000 awards of Attendance Allowance were terminated in the 12 months ending 30 September 2000. Awards are terminated in a range
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of circumstances, including when people's condition improves, or they go to live abroad, die, or enter long-term residential care.
Minimum Income Guarantee
18. Mrs. Gilroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people have applied for the minimum income guarantee this year. [136125]
Mr. Darling: 220,000 pensioners have applied for the Minimum Income Guarantee between January and September this year.
21. Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of the number of pensioners who are entitled to the minimum income guarantee who do not claim it. [136128]
Mr. Rooker: From statistical surveys based on a 1 per cent. sample it has been estimated that around 500,000 pensioners could be entitled to Minimum Income Guarantee but do not claim it. We shall have a better idea of a figure when the present take-up campaign is concluded, during which we are making direct contact with 2.3 million pensioners.
23. Mr. Nigel Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate how many senior citizens are eligible for the minimum income guarantee. [136130]
Mr. Rooker: Some 2 million pensioners either as single people or couples receive the Minimum Income Guarantee. Figures for those who might be entitled but are not claiming were based on a 1 per cent. sample. We shall have a better idea when the present take-up campaign is concluded, during which we are making direct contact with 2.3 million pensioners.
24. Mr. Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has to help those pensioners whose small occupational pension schemes prevent them from receiving the minimum income guarantee. [136131]
Mr. Rooker: The new Pension Credit will help those on modest incomes with small occupational pensions firstly by introducing a new higher guaranteed income and secondly by rewarding savings income.
Social Fund
19. Mr. Tynan: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the operation of the social fund's budgeting loan scheme. [136126]
Angela Eagle: The changes we made to simplify the social fund budgeting loan scheme in April 1999 are working well. In its first year the new scheme helped more people on the lowest incomes by way of interest-free loans than ever before.
Pensioner Tax Credit
20. Mr. Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what representations he has received concerning the proposed pensioner tax credit. [136127]
Mr. Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what representations he has received regarding the proposals for a pensioner tax credit. [136123]
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Mr. Rooker: A number of representations have been received on this matter. A consultation paper on our proposals for the Pension Credit was published on 9 November. A copy has been placed in the Library.
27. Ms Oona King: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the forthcoming Pensioner Tax Credit. [136134]
Mr. Rooker: We published our proposals for the Pension Credit last week. The plans are subject to public consultation.
Fraud
22. Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the amount of benefit fraud detected since May 1997. [136129]
Mr. Rooker: The estimated loss due to fraud is £2 billion per year. We have now increased the targets for reducing the amount of fraud and error in the system. We are now aiming to reduce the losses from fraud and error in Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance, the two most vulnerable benefits, by 25 per cent. by March 2004, rising to 50 per cent. by March 2006.
30. Sir Sydney Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the progress of his initiatives to tackle Housing Benefit fraud. [136137]
Angela Eagle: We continue to give tackling Housing Benefit fraud a very high priority. One of our key objectives is to prevent fraud and error from entering the system. To this end, we are taking initiatives to ensure that information flows freely between local authorities and the Department:
- We allocated £4 million funding to local authorities to install Remote Access Terminals (RATs), which give staff access to the Department's benefit systems. 404 local authorities have at least one RAT.
We have funded Electronic Transfer of Data (ETD). This means that many millions of paper forms, previously sent by the Benefits Agency to local authorities through the post, are now sent electronically.
- £100 million has been made available to local authorities to implement the Verification Framework by 2001. We have specified minimum standards for the verification of the identity of claimants, so preventing fraud from entering the system. To date, 253 local authorities have received set-up costs and 185 have been certified as compliant.
352 local authorities have signed up for the Royal Mail "Do not redirect" service funded by the Department. This prevents fraudsters having benefit mail redirected to a different address.
Reform of the anti-fraud financial incentive scheme is in progress, to ensure that local authorities can be rewarded for securing the end-to-end claims process.
Mr. Rooker: The information requested is not yet available for 1999-2000.
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