| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
19 Dec 2002 : Column 1017W—continued
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many parliamentary questions to his Department were not answered during the last parliamentary Session. [88208]
Maria Eagle: Out of over 4,000 parliamentary questions tabled during 2001–02, just 13 remained unanswered at the end of the Session. Of these, nine were tabled in the final week.
Retirement Ages
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer of 27 November, Official Report, column 321W, on retirement ages, what the average age of retirement is for (a) women, and (b) men, for (i) his Department's employees, and (ii) people who work in each of the executive agencies within his department. [88213]
Mr. McCartney: The average age of staff, by gender, retiring from the Department and from each of the executive agencies is shown in the following table.
| Average age male | Average age female | |
|---|---|---|
| DWP | 61.2 | 62.4 |
| Jobcentre Plus | 61.0 | 62.1 |
| The Pension Service | 60.9 | 60.2 |
| Child Support Agency | 61.7 | 62.8 |
| Appeals Service | 64.0 | 60.0 |
SchlumbergerSema
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list (a) the key performance targets and (b) other performance measures, and the levels of performance against those measures, (c) the further quality improvement measures, (d) the contractual milestones agreed for each of the key improvement projects and (e) the other contractual
19 Dec 2002 : Column 1018W
improvements that have been secured in respect of SchlumbergerSema; and, for each of the last 12 months, on how many occasions a financial remedy has been applied to SchlumbergerSema, and how much on each of those occasions. [85382]
Mr. Nicholas Brown [holding answer 12 December 2002]: A copy of the information requested has been placed in the Library.
Service credits for failure to meet contractual service level targets have been applied in each of the last 12 months. Precise details are commercial in confidence and not disclosed under part 2, paragraph 13 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.
SERPS
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of recent trends in the number of people who are contracted out of SERPS and the State Second Pension; and if he will make a statement. [85567]
Mr. McCartney [holding answer 5 December 2002]: The Department for Work and Pensions is in the process of preparing an analysis of NIRS2 data for the period 1996–97 to 2000–01 showing numbers of people contracting out of SERPS/S2P over this period. The results of this analysis will be contained in a report on XSecond Tier Pension Provision" that is due to be published in the latter part of next year.
Social Fund
Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the administrative costs of the Social Fund were in each of the last five financial years; and if he will make a statement. [82079]
Malcolm Wicks: The information is not available in the format requested. The Department now accounts for its administration and benefit expenditure by Strategic Objective, as set out in its Public Service Agreements (PSA), and by individual Requests for Resources (RfRs) as set out in the Departmental Estimates and Accounts.
Estimates of the cost of administering the Social Fund are available for 1997–98 and 1998–99 and these are shown in the table.
| Financial year | Estimated Social Fund expenditure(42) |
|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 1,047,000 |
| 1998–99 | 1,114,000 |
Note:
The estimated expenditure includes moneys spent on both administering the recovery of Social Fund loans as well as their payment.
Source:
Social Security Departmental Reports 1999–2000 (Figure 50) and 2000–01 to 2001–02 (Figure 42).
19 Dec 2002 : Column 1019W
Social Fund Repayments
Mrs. Calton: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will commission research into the impact of Social Fund repayments on the (a) standard of living and (b) indebtedness of recipients of budgeting loans. [85151]
Malcolm Wicks: The Department has already carried out qualitative research on the Social Fund which included the views of budgeting loan recipients on repayment rates. Findings from this research are published in the Department's Research Report Series, Report numbers 125 and 172, copies of which are available in the Library.
The Department's annual Families and Children Survey collects detailed information on families' and children's living standards and debt, including outstanding budgeting loans. Four reports are due to be published in the new year from the 2001 survey, one of which will focus on living standards and hardship issues. Copies of the reports will be placed in the Library as they are published.
War Pensions
Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when the #10 earnings disregard for war disablements pensioners in receipt of income support was last uprated; and what has been the cumulative increase in the retail price index since that date. [86311]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 12 December 2002]: Income Support is intended to help people whose resources are insufficient to meet their day-to-day living expenses. Any income that is available to meet those expenses is normally taken fully into account. However there is a special disregard in the income-related benefits in respect of War Disablement Pension which was increased from #5 to #10 in April 1990. In addition, payments made to war disabled pensioners for their attendance or mobility needs are also disregarded in the calculation of Income Support entitlement.
We believe that the current disregard strikes the right balance between acknowledging the special reasons for these pensions and prudent use of public funds.
Between April 1990 and October 2002 the percentage increase in the all items retail price index has been 42.2 per cent. Income Support allowances are generally uprated using the Rossi Index which has increased by 42.8 per cent. over the same period.
19 Dec 2002 : Column 1020W
Winter Fuel Payment
Mr. Denis Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) persons and (b) households in the Wansbeck constituency will receive the winter fuel payment for 2002–03. [88159]
Mr. McCartney: Figures for winter 2002–03 are not yet available. However, last winter 18,200 people received a winter fuel payment in the Wansbeck constituency, and we expect this year's figure to be similar.
The exact number of households these people lived in is not available. However, 9,500 people received a #100 payment because they shared a household with at least one other eligible person, and the remaining 8,700 people each received a #200 payment.
- Source:
- Figures from Information and Analysis Directorate, using 100 per cent. extract from Matching, Intelligence and Data Analysis Service.
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost of extending the winter fuel payments to those under 16 years is; and what percentage this represents of the total social security budget. [88018]
Mr. McCartney: We estimate that the extra cost of extending Winter Fuel Payments to households which contain at least one child under the age of 16 in Great Britain would be in the region of #1.3 billion in 2002–03. This cost is based on the assumption that no one else in the household is entitled to the payment. The cost represents around 1.2 per cent. of estimated benefit expenditure in Great Britain in 2002–03.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people entitled to one or more backdated winter fuel payments as a result of the European Court decision have received one; and how many people are entitled to make a claim for a backdated payment, but have yet to do so. [88205]
Mr. McCartney: Estimates show that around 1.9 million people could have been eligible for backdated payments for the first three years of the scheme and about 1.2 million people have now been paid. There is no cut off dates for these retrospective payments.
It is not possible to provide a reliable estimate of the numbers who have not claimed because the estimate of those newly eligible was based on sample data. It is up to the individual, where a claim is necessary, to decide whether or not to make that claim.
19 Dec 2002 : Column 1021W
WORK AND PENSIONS
Benefit Claimants
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many benefit claimants have been sanctioned because they have refused to take part in the pilot scheme to improve the literacy and numeracy skills of long-term unemployed people. [88216]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 19 December 2002]: Between September 2001 and April 2002, we piloted a number of approaches aimed at encouraging greater take up of basic skills provision by people claiming jobseeker's allowance. These included testing different mechanisms to identify those with basic skills needs, and the use of financial incentives and/or benefit sanctions to encourage the take up of training.
In north Nottinghamshire we piloted the use of benefit sanctions if a client refused an offer of training or left training early without good cause. In Leeds we combined the use of sanctions with financial incentives of #20 per week on top of their benefit for clients taking up training, and #100 for those achieving a basic skills qualification. In the two pilots, 1,623 clients had a possible basic skills need identified. Of these, 18 had sanctions applied, three because they failed to attend a basic skills assessment and 15 because they failed to attend training or left early without good cause.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |