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Pensions (Yeovil)

Paddy Ashdown: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many pensioners in Yeovil constituency have a weekly gross income of under (a) £100, (b) £150, (c) £200, (d) £500 and (e) £1,000. [144586]

Mr. Rooker: The information is not available.

Paddy Ashdown: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many pensioners in Yeovil constituency receive the over-80s premium on the basic state pension; and if he will make a statement. [144588]

Mr. Rooker: There are 2,321,800 elderly people living either in Great Britain or overseas who have an entitlement to basic state pension and who receive the over-80s addition. Among them, 5,500 are resident in the parliamentary constituency of Yeovil.






Citizens Advice Bureaux

Mr. Welsh: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list the benefit claims forms that referred claimants to the Citizens Advice Bureaux Service for assistance and advice in their completion as at 31 December 2000; what percentage of documents issued referred benefits claimants to Citizens Advice Bureaux in each year from 1996 to 2000; and what discussions the Government have had with the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux in respect of the inclusion of such references to advice. [146091]

Angela Eagle: DSS claim packs and forms refer customers to Citizens Advice Bureaux (CABs) for general advice. They do not direct them to CABs for claim pack or form completion.

These references have been discussed with the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NACAB).

At present, 40 forms out of a total of 52 contain a reference to the CABs ie 76.92 per cent. Figures for the years 1996 to 2000 are not available.

18 Jan 2001 : Column: 390W

The claim forms that refer to CABs for advice and assistance are listed as follows:















































Benefit Payments (Yeovil)

Paddy Ashdown: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what percentage of people of working age in Yeovil constituency receive (a) Income Support and (b) disability benefits; and if he will make a statement. [144587]

18 Jan 2001 : Column: 391W

Mr. Bayley: The administration of benefits is a matter for Alexis Cleveland, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. She will write to the right hon. Member.

Letter from Alexis Cleveland to Paddy Ashdown, dated 18 January 2001:



Recipients of working age on Income Support and disability benefits in Yeovil parliamentary constituency as at May 2000(41)

BenefitTotal receiving benefit
Income Support (IS)2,500
Disability Living Allowance (DLA)1,700
Incapacity Benefit (IB)1,700
Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA)600
IB, SDA or DLA(42) 2.800

(41) Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred.

(42) Number of people who receive one or more of these benefits.

Source:

Client Group Analysis of DSS ASDI 5 per cent. statistical samples relating to May 2000



I hope this is helpful.

PRIME MINISTER

Social Exclusion (Wales)

Mr. Wigley: To ask the Prime Minister if he will make a statement on the recommendation in the Third report of the Welsh Affairs Committee, on social exclusion in Wales, concerning the availability of disaggregated statistical information relating to Wales. [146019]

Mr. Paul Murphy: I have been asked to reply.

A great deal of statistical information is already available in geographically dis-aggregated form--and the Committee specifically paid tribute to the recent publication of the "Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation", which brings together some new small area data for Wales. The National Assembly hopes to extend the amount of information available at the local level in collaboration with the Office for National Statistics' Neighbourhood Statistics Service to be launched shortly.

The Government are carefully considering all of the Select Committee's recommendations, including this one, and will respond fully to the report in due course.

LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT

Debt Recovery

Mr. Wigley: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will review the Government's debt recovery policies to ensure that they support the aims of its social inclusion strategy. [146014]

Mr. Lock: The Lord Chancellor is not involved in large-scale debt recovery, but is responsible for the courts and the enforcement of civil court judgments.

18 Jan 2001 : Column: 392W

The Lord Chancellor's Department is currently carrying out a review of enforcement of civil court judgments. The final report of phase 1 was published on 26 July 2000 and phase 2 is still continuing. My Department has been and will continue to involve colleagues working on social exclusion issues and debt advice agencies throughout the review process and will take account of their views.

Legal Services Commission

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what the costs of the recently completed research project into the Legal Services Commission's publicly-funded family mediation pilot project were; how many copies of the full research report were printed and what plans he has to publish more copies of the research; what the cost of the recently completed research project into the provision of divorce information was; when the divorce information research report will be published; and if he will make a statement. [144885]

Jane Kennedy: The cost of the research into the pilot contacts for the provision of publicly funded family mediation commissioned by the Legal Services Commission was £785,700. The LSC printed 100 copies of the full report and 500 copies of a summary of the report's findings for distribution at the time of publication on 20 December 2000. Further copies are in the process of being printed. In addition, the fully report and summary are available on the LSC's website.

The total cost of the information meeting pilots under Part II of the Family Law Act 1996 was £6,338,799, of which £2,183,996 related to the cost of evaluating the pilots. The final evaluation report was published on 16 January 2001, and I refer my hon. Friend to the written answer that I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Hammersmith and Fulham (Mr. Coleman) on that date, Official Report, column 219W.

CAFCASS

Mr. Wigley: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department on what date CAFCASS will open; and when (a) a training manual and (b) introductory booklets and leaflets will be made available. [144853]

Jane Kennedy: CAFCASS will begin operation on 1 April 2001. The continued training and development of staff will be a priority for the new service and CAFCASS will have a training strategy. There are no plans to produce a prescriptive training manual as the service involves complex judgments which require flexible approaches in each case. Instead, there will be available a wide range of guidance from 1 April. This guidance is based on the work which has been carried out as part of the CAFCASS development programme and includes that developed jointly with key stakeholders. CAFCASS plans to publish a number of leaflets covering general introductory issues and specific subjects such as mediation and complaints procedures. There will also be leaflets aimed specifically at children. These will be available from each CAFCASS office from 1 April 2001.

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