| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
26 Jun 2003 : Column 965W—continued
Pension Credit
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if his Department will issue guidance to local authorities discouraging them from reassessing pensioners' housing benefit entitlement in October 2003 until payments of pension credit have come on stream. [121969]
Malcolm Wicks: The Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (State Pension Credit) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003/325), which will complement the introduction of state pension credit, come into force on 6 October 2003.
At that date, local authorities will reassess existing housing benefit and council tax benefit claims to reflect the increased applicable amounts payable to all pensioners aged 65 and over and the more generous rules on the treatment of assumed income from capital. Where pension credit must be taken into account as an income in the housing benefit or council tax benefit assessment, no case can be reassessed until the pension credit is in payment and the Pension Service has notified the local authority of the award.
Stress
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate his Department has made of (a) the number of workers suffering from stress and (b) the resultant financial cost. [121265]
Mr. Browne: In England and Wales in 2001–02 approximately 563,000 people reported suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety. The costs of Work-related Stress were last estimated in 1995–06 at £353–381 million to UK business and £33.7 to £33.8 billion to society (1995–06 prices) 1 .
- 1 Taken from the Self-reported Work-related III Health Surveys (SWI). It should be noted that these estimates are based on a number of assumptions and are intended to be broadly indicative.
Unemployment
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the factors influencing unemployment levels over the last three months; and if he will make a statement. [120931]
Mr. Browne: Recent labour market developments reflect continued steady growth in employment, up by 51,000 in the last three months and 242,000 over the last year. The increase in employment has been matched by a rise in the labour force brought about by population growth and higher activity rates. As a result unemployment has been broadly flat, though it has been fluctuating from month to month around this flat trend.
ILO unemployment currently stands at 1.495 million. The ILO unemployment rate is 5.1 per cent., up 0.1 percentage points in the last three months, but down by the same amount over the last year. The number of
26 Jun 2003 : Column 966W
unemployed claimants is 950,800. The claimant unemployment rate is 3.1 per cent. and has been unchanged at this level since December 2001.
The Government's approach is based on macro-economic stability combined with active labour market measures to help jobless people, particularly the most disadvantaged, get back into work. Steady economic growth and policies such as New Deal have contributed to a rise of 1.5 million in the number of people in work since 1997, while long-term unemployment has fallen by 75 per cent. to a historically low level.
Voluntary Organisations
Mr. Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what funding programmes are operated by his Department to support voluntary organisations working with young people; and what the level of support has been over the last three years. [116493]
Mr. Browne: The Department funds contracts, directly and indirectly with a number of voluntary organisations to deliver the support available through the New Deal Programmes, including New Deal for Young People. Information is not available on the exact level of support made through these channels.
Each Government Department produces a Learning to Listen Action Plan every year. This year's plan for the Department for Work and Pensions will be published online shortly. Learning to Listen is the embodiment of our commitment to engaging with children and young people pursuant to creating effective policies.
We strongly believe in listening to the voices of children and young people. Recent examples of our commitment in this area are the varied consultations held with children and young people during the measuring child poverty consultation and the visit to DWP of the UK Youth Parliament.
As part of celebrating the European Year of Disabled People, the Department is funding 167 projects in the voluntary sector, which aim to promote disability issues in a positive light. Many of these projects do include young people as participants or beneficiaries. In the 2002–03 financial year, we provided some £1,130,000 of Government funding to these projects. We plan to provide some £630,000 of Government funds and £550,000 of EC funds over the next two years.
Welfare-to-Work Targets
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what representations he has received regarding the Government's welfare to work targets. [120884]
Mr. Browne: The Department has not received any representations regarding the Government's welfare to work targets.
Workplace Health and Safety
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average period of time is between visits to places of employment by health and safety inspectors in England and Wales. [118552]
26 Jun 2003 : Column 967W
Mr. Browne: HSE's operational directorates and divisions deal with a wide range of workplaces, both fixed and transient, across several employment sectors. This requires HSE to adopt different approaches based on understanding of hazards and risks and the performance of duty holders. Higher risk sites and high hazard sites where there is potential for catastrophic events are visited more frequently than lower risk sites which might be visited infrequently. The lowest risk sites might be contacted through other means than visits such as seminars and mailshots.
26 Jun 2003 : Column 968W
In addition, local authorities have inspection responsibility under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 for approximately 1.2 million premises in the retail, finance and leisure sectors.. Intervention strategies are based on assessments of intrinsic hazard and risk and judgments about the competence and willingness of duty holders to control risks and comply with the law. Intervals between visits will vary substantially between sectors and between duty holders within each sector. For these reasons it is not possible to provide a meaningful average for the frequency of visits.