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Overseas Pensioners
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many British pensioners living overseas do not have their basic state pension uprated annually in line with inflation according to their country of residence; [46892]
- (2) if he will make a statement on the age profile of British pensioners living overseas in countries with which the UK does not have a reciprocal agreement to uprate pensions annually in line with inflation; [46893]
(3) what recent assessment he has made of the costs involved in uprating the pensions of British pensioners overseas in line with inflation in those countries with which the UK does not have a reciprocal agreement; [46895]
(4) how many British pensioners living overseas are in receipt of the basic state pension; and what percentage of total spending on the basic state pension has payment to British pensioners overseas represented in each year since 1997. [46897]
Mr. McCartney: Such information as is available is as follows.
The UK state pension is paid to those who satisfy the qualifying conditions, which do not include nationality. The information requested on numbers of pensioners who do not receive annual uprating is contained in Table RP4 of the "Retirement Pension Summary of Statistics—September 2001", a copy of which is available in the Library. Costs involved in uprating the pensions of British pensioners overseas will depend on the outcome of the current Judicial Review.
(31) Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred; totals may not sum due to rounding.
(32) Figures subject to high degree of sampling error and should only be used as a guide to the correct situation.
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| Number of pensioners living overseas (thousand) | Percentage of total BSP expenditure | |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 740 | 3.6 |
| 1998 | 770 | 3.6 |
| 1999 | 790 | 3.7 |
| 2000 | 810 | 3.8 |
| 2001 | 840 | 3.9 |
Notes:
1. Figures rounded to nearest 10,000.
2. Taken from March administrative data.
3. Figures exclude those in receipt of additional pension/graduated retirement benefit only.
4. Figures exclude Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands.
Disability Living Allowance
Mr. Kirkwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what progress has been made with his project on modernisation of disability living allowance. [54645]
Maria Eagle: We are delivering our commitment to modernise disability living allowance (DLA) by introducing a system of active case management which ensures that entitlements are right at the outset and remain right.
We are ensuring that the period for which disability living allowance is awarded more appropriately reflects the effects of the customer's disability. As a result the majority of DLA awards are now for a fixed period, and therefore subject to later renewal and review. In addition, in June 1999, we introduced a system of periodic inquiry to ensure that longer term awards remained correct. In April 2002 we introduced refinements to the periodic inquiry process to focus more effort on those cases with the greatest likelihood of incorrectness.
Extensive work has already been done to shorten and simplify the claiming process for disability living allowance. A shorter claim pack, reduced by 10 pages, was introduced in April 2001 and tests of a new attendance allowance claim pack for people aged 75 and over, which is currently taking place, shows that further significant shortening of the claim pack used for extra cost disability benefits is possible. From September 2002 it is
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planned to test a significantly shortened disability living allowance claim pack tailored to the needs of individual customers, as part of a new streamlined claim process.
New report forms to enable general practitioners and Examining Medical Officers to provide clinical rather than subjective medical information about customers are being introduced. These are currently being developed and tested and subject to the satisfactory evaluation of live testing will be rolled out nationally commencing with the general practitioner form in June 2002.
Staff involved in the DLA decision making process are receiving specialist training on disability awareness and the initial training programme is due to be completed by the end of December. Two additional modules to the programme are now being developed and delivery to staff is due to commence later this year.
We are continuing to examine the feasibility of making greater use of health care professionals in the decision making process.
Fraud and Improprieties
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff in his Department are involved in work to investigate suspicions of fraud from his Department's vote 1 budget. [54711]
Malcolm Wicks: The overall aim of the Department's anti-fraud strategy is to have a benefit system which is secure from first claim to final payment.
The implementation of this strategy means that an anti-fraud focus is integral to the work of all staff in the Department, as is dealing with the wider agenda of error and incorrectness in benefit payments.
The number of the Department's staff employed at 31 March 2002 specifically in work to investigate suspicions of fraud in the areas previously covered 1 by the Department's vote 1 budget was 5,469.
- 1 As a result of the introduction of Resource Accounting and Budgeting the Department moved from three votes to one departmental vote on 1 April 2001. The last vote 1 and vote 2 accounts were for the 2000–01 financial year.
- Source:
- Professional Standards Unit. Figure includes investigators and dedicated administrative support staff.
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff were employed undertaking specific work on counter fraud policy issues from his Department's vote 2 budget on 8 April. [54712]
Malcolm Wicks: The overall aim of the Department's anti-fraud strategy is to have a benefit system which is secure from first claim to final payment.
The implementation of this strategy means that an anti-fraud focus is integral to the work of all staff in the Department, as is dealing with the wider agenda of error and incorrectness in benefit payments.
As a result of the introduction of Resource Accounting and Budgeting the Department moved from three votes to one departmental vote on 1 April 2001. The last vote 1 and vote 2 accounts were for the 2000–01 financial year.
21 May 2002 : Column 295W
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff in (a) his Department and (b) each of its agencies (i) were disciplined, (ii) resigned and (iii) were dismissed after suspicions of fraud or corruption arose in 2000–01. [54719]
Malcolm Wicks: The Department treats very seriously any suspicions of fraud or corruption by its officers and takes firm action in any cases that arise.
No instances of corruption were identified in 2000–01. Information on cases where misconduct as a consequence of fraud was identified in 2000–01 is in the table.
| Number of cases | |
|---|---|
| Benefits Agency | 65 |
| Departmental directorates | 10 |
| War Pensions Agency | 2 |
| Child Support Agency | 5 |
| The Appeals Service | 0 |
| Employment Service | 26 |
| Total | 108 |
Note:
DWP was only formed in 2001–02 and the Employment Service was formerly part of the Department for Education and Employment.
Information on the outcomes of cases in 2000–01 is in the following table.
| Disciplinary penalty | Dismissed | Resigned | Other(33) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benefits Agency | 31 | 14 | 9 | 11 |
| Departmental directorates | 9 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| War Pensions Agency | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Child Support Agency | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| The Appeals Service | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Employment Service | 19 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| Total | 59 | 19 | 14 | 16 |
(33) Including cases not proven, not culpable, not yet decided, those where no further action has been taken and those where an appeal is ongoing.
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff in (a) his Department and (b) each of its agencies with access to national insurance records were (i) disciplined, (ii) resigned and (iii) dismissed as a result of improprieties concerning their use of this access in 2000–01. [54718]
Malcolm Wicks: The Department treats very seriously any suspicions of unauthorised access by its officers and takes firm action in any cases that arise.
Information on the number of cases in 2000–01 where misconduct was identified is in the table.
| Number of cases | |
|---|---|
| Benefits Agency | 50 |
| Departmental directorates | 1 |
| War Pensions Agency | 0 |
| Child Support Agency | 2 |
| The Appeals Service | 0 |
| Employment Service | 7 |
| Total | 60 |
Note:
DWP was only formed in 2001–02 and the Employment Service was formerly part of the Department for Education and Employment.
Information on the outcomes of cases in 2000–01 is in the following table.
21 May 2002 : Column 296W
| Disciplinary penalty | Dismissed | Resigned | Other | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benefits Agency | 28 | 12 | 9 | (34)1 |
| Departmental directorates | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| War Pensions Agency | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Child Support Agency | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| The Appeals Service | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Employment Service | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 33 | 16 | 10 | 1 |
(34) No formal action was taken.
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