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Child Poverty
26. Mr. Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what measures he has taken to combat child poverty. [154885]
Mr. Bayley: "Opportunity for all" describes the full range of measures we are taking to combat child poverty, but I will highlight just a few.
As a result of personal tax and benefit measures announced by this Government, over 1.2 million children will be lifted out of poverty and all working families will be guaranteed an income of £11,700 a year from October 2001.
And we are ensuring all children get the best start in life by helping parents into work through the New Deals, raising education standards by investing more in schools, tackling health inequalities, and improving services through our £450 million investment in the new Children's Fund.
Minimum Income Guarantee
27. Mr. Viggers: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many letters have been sent out to pensioners who are possible candidates for the minimum income guarantee; and how many of those pensioners have made successful claims. [154886]
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Mr. Rooker: Since the launch of the campaign last May, over 2 million pensioners have been written to and around 887,000 pensioners have responded. At the end of February the Department had received over 182,000 additional claims. Claims as a result of the campaign continue to be received and processed.
Ms Squire: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will ensure that a written explanation is provided to unsuccessful applicants for the Minimum Income Guarantee. [155009]
Mr. Rooker: It is standard procedure in the Benefits Agency for a written decision to be issued on all application forms that are received, irrespective of whether the claim is successful or not.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will place in the Library the Government's evaluation of the Minimum Income Guarantee take-up campaign and independent evaluations commissioned by ministers. [155413]
Mr. Rooker: Evaluation of the Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) take-up campaign is ongoing. A summary of quantitative tracking research on pensioners' awareness of MIG is due to be published shortly. A further report of research commissioned by the Department to assess the use of the MIG Claimline is due to be published in July and, in accordance with normal practice, a copy will be placed in the Library.
Disability Living Allowance
28. Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on medical assessments for Disability Living Allowance. [154887]
Mr. Bayley: Assessment of entitlement to Disability Living Allowance is made by non medical Benefits Agency staff known as Decision Makers. Evidence is gathered by the Decision Makers from a number of sources, one of which can include a medical examination carried out by a Medical Services doctor.
Mr. Berry: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what proportion of decisions on initial claims for Disability Living Allowance were made on the basis of a medical assessment by an examining medical practitioner in each of the last five years. [155627]
Mr. Bayley: The information is in the table.
| Year | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 1996 | 34 |
| 1997 | 35 |
| 1998 | 34 |
| 1999 | 39 |
| 2000 | 40 |
Source:
DSS Information Centre: 100 per cent. data.
Mr. Berry: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what proportion of initial applications for Disability Living Allowance were successful in each of the last three years. [155626]
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Mr. Bayley: The information is in the table.
| Year | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 1998 | 46 |
| 1999 | 47 |
| 2000 | 51 |
Source:
DSS Information Centre: 100 per cent. data.
Pension Credit
30. Mr. Joyce: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what role the pension credit will play in encouraging people to save for retirement. [154889]
Mr. Rooker: The Pension Credit will ensure that people of modest means are rewarded from building on basic pension level through SERPS, a private pension or other forms of income and savings.
33. Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what progress is being made with introduction of the pension credit. [154892]
Mr. Rooker: The Government have received over 400 responses to the consultation paper. We are considering these carefully and will announce our response to them in due course.
Shona McIsaac: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on progress being made on the introduction of the pension credit. [154871]
Mr. Rooker: We are considering more than 400 responses to our consultation paper and we will be announcing our response in due course.
Disabled Persons Tax Credit
32. Mr. Tynan: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the expected take-up of the Disabled Persons Tax Credit announced in the Budget. [154891]
Mr. Bayley: The Disabled Person's Tax Credit was introduced in October 1999. Almost 27,000 disabled people who are in work benefited from the Disabled Person's Tax Credit at October 2000. This is over 8,000 higher than the number who benefited from Disability Working Allowance at its peak.
Carer Support
35. Mr. Goggins: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what action he is taking to increase support for older carers. [154894]
Mr. Bayley: We have substantially increased the carer premium in Income Support to £24.40 from 1 April. This will benefit some 36,000 low income carers aged 60 years or over.
We also propose to extend eligibility to apply for Invalid Care Allowance (ICA) to carers aged 65 or over as soon as a legislative opportunity permits. This will enable some older carers with limited entitlement to retirement pension to receive ICA, either at the full rate
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or as a top-up. In addition, many pensioner carers will be able to receive carer premium paid on top of the Minimum Income Guarantee for the first time.
Pensioners' Incomes
36. Mr. Borrow: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what the impact has been on pensioners' incomes of changes to tax and benefits since May 1997. [154895]
Mr. Rooker: Personal tax and benefit changes mean that on average pensioner households will be £600 a year better off than in 1997.
Residential Care
Mr. John Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has to uprate the payments to residential homes to cover the cost of the care of residents. [154865]
Mr. Darling: From this April the maximum benefit paid to people in residential care and nursing homes will increase by 1.8 per cent. and by a further 1.9 per cent. later this year. This is the first above inflation increase since 1993 and gives a total increase of 3.7 per cent.
It will be implemented at the earliest possible opportunity and will benefit up to 70,000 people whose care costs are met through the preserved rights arrangements.
Child Maintenance (Disputes)
Mr. Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will review the Child Support Agency regulations to require the alleged father in disputed maintenance cases to take a second blood test. [154876]
Angela Eagle: The Child Support Agency cannot require an alleged father to take a DNA test and there are no plans to change this. If either parent disputes the outcome of a CSA arranged test, they can apply to the courts for a declaration of parentage.
Computer Failures
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people in receipt of (a) pension, (b) income support and (c) both have had their payment delayed as a result of the income support computer software being unable to calculate payment due to increases in retirement pension; if any such problem in making payments had been anticipated; if any similar failures in processing payments are expected at the beginning of the next financial year; and if he will make a statement. [154544]
Mr. Bayley: The administration of Income Support is a matter for Alexis Cleveland the Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Alexis Cleveland to Mr. Paul Burstow, dated 29 March 2001:
- The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking, how many people in receipt of (a) pension, (b) income support and (c) both have had their payment delayed as a result of the income support computer software being unable to calculate payment due to increases in
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- retirement pension; if any such problem in making payments had been anticipated; if any similar failures in processing payments are expected at the beginning of the next financial year.
- It may help if I explain that the Income Support Computer System (ISCS) can automatically calculate and make payment due to Retirement Pension (RP) uprating for 84% of cases (up from 83% last year). The balance of the cases are not calculated automatically because they have exceptional/complex circumstances which require clerical action.
- The cases that cannot be uprated automatically are identified via ISCS and a report issued to Managers in field offices. Field Managers plan for this annual exercise and use the uprating reports to allocate resources to carry out the necessary activity on the cases listed. Further reports are produced on a monthly basis to monitor progress.
- This process only effects Income Support pensioners. Customers in receipt of Income Support or RP only are unaffected.
- The production of the initial uprating report was postponed by one week this year to accommodate Winter Fuel Payment work. There are no further delays planned, and the IS Live Support Incident Management Team has not received any reports from the Field which point to payment delays or any other problem with the ISCS with respect to uprating.
- I hope this is helpful.
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