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Press Office

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff in his Department's press office have received (a) termination and (b) redundancy payments in each of the last four years. [41079]

Mr. Nicholas Brown: None.

Pensioners Tax Credit

David Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment has been made of the impact of the pensioners tax credit on pensioners in receipt of modest occupational pensions who are being taxed. [31353]

Mr. McCartney: Pension credit, which is not a tax credit, will have a positive impact on the small proportion of recipients with modest occupational pensions who also pay tax, as pension credit itself is tax free.

Retired People (Tooting)

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many retired people in the Tooting constituency are in receipt of the minimum income guarantee. [38205]

Mr. Nicholas Brown: The information requested is in the table.

Minimum income guarantee for pensioners, in the parliamentary constituency of Tooting, as at November 2001

	Total(26)	Claimants	Partners
All	2,900	2,500	400
State pension age	2,600	2,200	300
Working age	400	200	100

⁽²⁶⁾ Claimants and partners

Source:

Income Support Statistics Quarterly Enquiry, November 2001

Jobcentre Plus

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will direct the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus to consent to referring the current dispute with the Public and Commercial Services Union to ACAS for arbitration. [33531]

Sir Teddy Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if the PCS Union has agreed to refer the dispute over safety at work in the Benefits Agency and jobcentres to arbitration; and what the view is of Her Majesty's Government on this process. [32872]

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether the recent dispute between the Public and Commercial Services Union and the Benefits Agency over screening in benefits offices will be referred to ACAS; and if he will make a statement. [32763]

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John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for what reason in the course of the industrial dispute over safety in Jobcentre Plus the involvement of ACAS has been specifically excluded as a means to bring this dispute to a resolution. [40503]

Mr. Nicholas Brown [holding answers 5 and 6 February 2002]: While conciliation and arbitration can be of value, it would not be appropriate in this instance to refer the current dispute to ACAS as the Public and Commercial Services Union has proposed. The fundamental principles underpinning the delivery of Jobcentre Plus are at the heart of the welfare modernisation and customer service improvement to which the Government are committed. They are not ones about which it is appropriate to seek arbitration.

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) if he will list the (a) subject matter, (b) dates and (c) times of (i) discussions, (ii) telephone conversations and (iii) meetings, (A) he and (B) the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus has had between 1 January and 28 February with (1) Mark Serwtoka, (2) Barry Reamsbottom, (3) Alan Churchyard and (4) Eddie Spence; [40500]

(2) if he will list the (a) subject matter, (b) individuals involved, (c) dates and (d) times of (i) discussions, (ii) telephone conversations and (iii) meetings he has had with the TUC in connection with the current trade dispute between his Department and the PCS Union; [40501]

(3) if he will list the dates and times of discussions, telephone conversations and meetings (a) he, (b) the Chief Executive, (c) Kevin White and (d) other senior managers in his Department have had with the PCS Union with regard to the Jobcentre Plus industrial dispute over safety; and which PCS Union senior officials those meetings and conversations were held with, between 4 September 2001 and 1 March 2002; [40502]

(4) what the overall cost arising from industrial dispute over safety in Jobcentre Plus is; and what expenditure has resulted. [40504]

Mr. Nicholas Brown: Managers have had over 60 hours of discussions with PCS. There have been numerous other contacts and approaches but we have been asked to treat these as confidential.

We estimate that around £5.5 million has been saved in staff salaries since September.

Pensions

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has to promote understanding of the importance of pension provision among young people. [37117]

Malcolm Wicks: The Government are committed to promoting the importance of pension provision to young people—as well as other groups.

The Government's pension education strategy includes providing information to people about their pension provision through pension forecasts, raising awareness of retirement planning through a publicity campaign. This includes activity aimed at young people, such as: advertising in publications and during TV programmes whose readership or viewers include a high number of

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young people; specific direct marketing activity for young people such as a targeted newspaper insert and direct mail to young people, and testing new ways to get information out to the public, for example through an interactive digital television pilot—due to launch this spring, which will have a section dedicated to a younger audience.

In addition, my Department continues to liaise with other Government Departments, the Financial Services Authority, employers, private pension providers and other organisations and groups to improve the way we provide pension information to consumers—including young people.

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate how much exists in purchase pension pots that were annuitised in each of the last five years; and how much he expects will be annuitised in the next five years. [37031]

Maria Eagle: The information is not available as requested.

The latest available information on the value of annuities sold is in the tables. This information is from the Association of British Insurers (ABI), and the values quoted are in cash terms prices. The figures are for all annuities purchased—which will include those purchased by pension funds which are not money purchase. However most annuities will have been sold to money purchase occupational pension funds and to individuals converting personal pensions.

We do not have any information as to how much we expect will be annuitised in the next five years.

Value of new annuities (in cash terms)

Year	£ million
1996	3,394
1997	3,944
1998	5,755
1999	5,716
2000	5,708

Source:

Figures taken from ABI publication.

Quarterly press release—long term annual figures.

Pension Credit

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the marginal benefit withdrawal rate will be from October 2003 for a pensioner on the pension credit who also receives (a) council tax benefit, (b) housing benefit and (c) council tax benefit and housing benefit. [24234]

Mr. McCartney: The information requested is shown in the following tables. The tables show the marginal deduction rates applied to people under minimum income guarantee or pension credit regimes who also receive any combination of housing and council tax benefits.

Pension credit recipients with income above the guarantee credit who are also entitled to housing and council tax benefits will experience higher withdrawal rates than under the minimum income guarantee. However, these people will see gains from the introduction of the savings credit, the fairer treatment of capital and the extension of the applicable amounts in housing and council tax benefit due to our proposals for

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pension credit. This means that a single pensioner over 65 with marginal deduction rates of 91 per cent. will gain at least £11 a week (couples will gain at least £15.81). It

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also means that almost 1.9 million pensioner households will get more help, or get help for the first time, with their rent or council tax.

Table 1: Marginal deduction rates facing a single pensioner aged 65 or over, and couples where one member is over 65⁽²⁷⁾

	Illustrative weekly income (£)		Percentage
Marginal deduction rates	For singles	For couples	Council tax benefit (a)	Housing benefit (b)	Council tax benefit and housing benefit (c)
Minimum income guarantee	0–100	0–154	100	100	100
	100+	154+	20	65	85
Pension credit	0–77	0–123	100	100	100
	77–100	123–154	40	40	40
	100–135	154–200	52	79	91
	135+	200+	20	65	85

⁽²⁷⁾ Excludes income tax

Table 2: Marginal deduction rates facing a single pensioner aged 60–64, and couples where both are under 65 but one member is aged 60–64⁽²⁸⁾

	Illustrative weekly income (£)		Percentage
Marginal deduction rates	For singles	For couples	Council tax benefit (a)	Housing benefit (b)	Council tax benefit and housing benefit (c)
Minimum income guarantee	0–100	0–154	100	100	100
	100+	154+	20	65	85
Pension credit	0–77	0–123	100	100	100
	77–100	123–154	100	100	100
	100–135	154–200	20	65	85
	135+	200+	20	65	85

⁽²⁸⁾ Excludes income tax

Table 3: Gains for single pensioners over 65 due to the introduction of pension credit£

Illustrative weekly income for singles	Pension credit	Council tax benefit (a)	Housing benefit (b)	Council tax benefit and housing benefit (c)
0–77	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
77–100	0.00–13.80	0.00–13.80	0.00–13.80	0.00–13.80
100–135	0–13.80	2.76–13.80	8.97–13.80	11.73–13.80
135+	0.00	2.76	8.97	11.73

Table 4: Gains for pensioner couples where one member of the couple is over 65 due to the introduction of pension credit£

Illustrative weekly income for couples	Pension credit	Council tax benefit (a)	Housing benefit (b)	Council tax benefit and housing benefit (c)
0–123	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
123–154	0.00–18.60	0.00–18.60	0.00–18.60	0.00–18.60
154–200	0–18.60	3.72–18.60	12.09–18.60	15.81–18.60
200+	0.00	3.72	12.09	15.81

Notes for all tables:
1. It is assumed that a pensioner with HB and/or CTB entitlement was entitled to these benefits before the introduction of pension credit.
2. Although single pensioners with income under £77 and pensioner couples with income under £123 face 100 per cent. marginal deduction rates their final income will be raised to the amount of the guarantee credit as a result of the introduction of pension credit.
3. Tables 3 and 4 show gains due only to the savings credit and the extension of the applicable amounts in housing and council tax benefits by the maximum savings credit. Some pensioners will gain more because of the changes to the treatment of capital and the more generous income assessment.

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