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14 Apr 2003 : Column 644W—continued
Home Responsibilities Protection
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether women who had opted to pay reduced rate national insurance contributions and who left paid employment for more than two years because of childcare responsibilities had to make a claim for home responsibilities protection. [109149]
Maria Eagle: Women receiving child benefit for a child under 16 whose reduced rate election had lapsed because they had not been in paid employment for two full tax years would be awarded Home Responsibilities Protection automatically from the following tax year.
Incapacity Benefit
Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement about the eligibility of sufferers of ME for incapacity benefit. [108144]
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Mr. Nicholas Brown: Incapacity benefit provides a source of income for sick and disabled people of working age. Eligibility is not dependent on any specific diagnosis or condition but on the effects of a condition on a persons ability to carry out day-to-day work-related activities, as determined by the Personal Capability Assessment.
Intermediate Labour Markets
Mr. David: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment his Department has made of the (a) value of and (b) potential for the development of intermediate labour markets. [107494]
Mr. Nicholas Brown: Intermediate Labour Markets work with disadvantaged people and seek to provide a supportive work environment, helping them to develop the skills needed to retain employment over time. They are widely used in the UK, including some funded by New Deal providers and Local Authorities.
The Department has commissioned research to assess the effectiveness of intermediate labour markets. Findings from this project are scheduled for publication later this year.
In addition, we are investing £40 million in StepUP, a transitional work programme that will provide a guaranteed job for up to 5,000 long-term unemployed people. Publication of the final report on StepUP is scheduled for April 2005.
Jobcentre Plus
Ross Cranston: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when Jobcentre Plus will be extended to cover the whole of England. [108714]
Mr. Nicholas Brown: The roll-out of Jobcentre Plus is progressing well and we currently have 230 offices delivering the new service. We aim to cover the whole of the country over the next three years, including my hon. Friend's constituency in 2005–06.
In the intervening period, however, we will continue to develop our services. For example, in my hon. Friend's constituency, we now have staff with benefits experience working in Jobcentres and vice versa. This is helping Jobcentres to provide a more integrated service.
Mr. Alan Reid: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his Department's policy is regarding (a) access to JobCentre Plus offices and (b) meetings with JobCentre Plus staff for members of the public who have contracted hepatitis A, B, C, or D; and if he will make a statement. [100322]
Mr. Nicholas Brown: The health and safety of both staff and customers is of paramount importance. Therefore it is vital that staff know how to deal with customers in a way that does not endanger their own health and safety or that of other people in the office.
The main source of health and safety advice is the departmental website, which can be accessed by all members of staff. This contains comprehensive guidance on all aspects of DWP health and safety
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policy. The Health and Safety Division is currently developing a new comprehensive programme of health and safety training and awareness for Jobcentre Plus. In the interim, staff receive a variety of training including a H&S induction course for staff working on Trillium sites, training in how to prevent and calm difficult or aggressive situations for staff with face-to-face contact with customers, and a number of health and safety leaflets and videos which are used to prompt and reinforce safe working practices.
The hepatitis virus is spread by contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, or by cross blood infection. Therefore in principle, staff working in a DWP business are at low risk of contracting the hepatitis virus through dealing with customers.
The first contact with a customer is normally by telephone. If during the course of the conversation, the staff member becomes aware that the customer has an infectious disease, the computer record is noted to alert staff who subsequently deal with the customer. Customers with the hepatitis virus do however have full access to all the services provided by Jobcentre Plus but, wherever possible, those customers would be dealt with by telephone or post.
Most of the time, staff will be unaware of when a customer has the hepatitis virus. They are therefore encouraged to safeguard their own health at all times by considering their own basic hygiene, and not taking any risks if a customer is bleeding. All blood spillages must be treated as infected regardless of the source. Detailed advice and guidance on how to maintain basic hygiene when dealing with discarded needles/syringes or blood spills is available on the Jobcentre Plus health and safety website.
As with all our records, information held by Jobcentre Plus on a customer's health is protected by the Data Protection Act. As such this information is not given to any other organisation or person, including members of the customers family, without the express permission of the customer.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many residents of Hendon are JobCentre Plus clients; how many such clients are on each of the New Deal programmes; how many residents of Hendon received services from Burnt Oak Job Centre before its closure; and how many received services from Hendon JobCentre Plus office. [108238]
Mr. Nicholas Brown [holding answer 9 April 2003]: At the end of August 2002 there were 9,500 JobCentre Plus clients resident in Hendon constituency. 1 – 5
- 1 Source: Client Group Analyses of DWP Information Centre 5 per cent. statistical samples.
- 2 Number is based on a 5 per cent. sample, and are therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation.
- 3 Number is rounded to the nearest hundred.
- 4 JobCentre Plus clients are defined as working age recipients of one or more of income support (non minimum income guarantee claimants), jobseeker's allowance, incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance, invalid care allowance, widow's benefit or bereavement benefit.
- 5 Parliamentary constituencies are allocated by matching postcodes against the relevant ONS postcode directory, and represent constituency boundaries as at May 1997.
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The available information on New Deal participants in the Hendon parliamentary constituency area is in the table.
| New Deal Programme | Number of Participants |
|---|---|
| New Deal for Young People(88) | 210 |
| New Deal 25 plus(88) | 210 |
| New Deal for Lone Parents(88) | 180 |
| New Deal 50 plus(89) | 40 |
(86) Source: New Deal Evaluation Database.
(87) All figures are rounded to the nearest 10. This is in line with National Statistics guidelines and prevents possible disclosure of individuals.
(88) As at end of December 2002.
(89) As at end of February 2003.
(90) Information is not available at constituency level for the other New Deal Programmes.
Burnt Oak Jobcentre was an advice and information office, and as such, had no register of customers. However, we have been able to estimate that, on average, 255 customers a month used that office. It provided job search facilities to people from all over north-west London and, therefore, we are unable to identify how many residents of Hendon received services from Burnt Oak Jobcentre.
Hendon Jobcentre is not scheduled to become a Jobcentre Plus office until it is rolled out along with the rest of north London District in 2005–06. The Jobcentre has a current register of 1,775 jobseeker's allowance customers. In addition, it is estimated that it sees around 100 non-jobseeker's allowance customers every week.
Joint Working Unit
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the work of his Department's Joint Working Unit. [108691]
Malcolm Wicks: Joint Working Unit (JWU) was set up in April 2001 as a result of recommendations made following reports produced by Lord Grabiner into the informal economy and the Scampion report countering benefit fraud in the then Department of Social Security.
The main focus of the JWU's work is to promote, encourage and facilitate joined-up working across central government departments and with local authorities and to act as formal stewards of the powers enacted by the Social Security Fraud Act 2001.
Examples of joint activities with other government departments include the Joint Shadow Economy Teams, which are made up of members from this Department, Her Majesty's Customs & Excise and the Inland Revenue. The aim of the teams is to bring those working within the informal economy into the real tax paying economy and keep them there. The Joint Fashion Industry Teams focus on those working in the fashion industry, looking at businesses who are suspected to be potentially, collusive or non-compliant employers. Operation Gangmaster was initially set up to investigate the use of agricultural gangmasters and their
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methods of operating, and has now widened to include other labour providers who demonstrate non-compliant behaviour.
Examples of joint activities with local authorities include Joint Regional Boards who work to develop region-specific counter-fraud strategies. The strategies are then implemented through Joint Operational Boards. JWU also acts as the Departmental contact for local authority groups such as the National Anti-fraud Network, the London Team Against Fraud and the Local Authority Investigation Officers Group. The JWU also supports the implementation of a joined-up intelligence-led investigative process for local authorities. It is currently working with Nottingham and Cardiff authorities by co-locating Intelligence Officers within the East Midlands and Wales Operational Intelligence Units.
Together with the Departmental Professional Standards Unit, JWU supports local authorities, the National Anti-fraud Network and Operational Intelligence Units on all aspects of the Social Security Fraud Act 2001 and its associated powers. This function includes ensuring the Fraud Act powers are understood and implemented effectively, accurately, securely and efficiently. The Unit is also responsible for the management of the relationship with our external information providers, and the provision of advice and expert guidance to front-line staff in both the Department and local authorities.
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