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16 Jul 2003 : Column 432W—continued
Jobseeker's Allowance
John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much money was claimed in jobseeker's allowance in Scotland in 2002–03, broken down by local authority. [125319]
Mr. Pond: Jobseeker's allowance gross benefit expenditure in Scotland for 2002–03 was £273,597,824.62. This figure is not available broken down by local authority area, but is available by district and local office, and this information has been placed in the Library.
Pension Credit Hotline
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) when information is being provided about the pension credit hotline to people who are likely to be eligible for the pension credit; [125403]
- (2) what the number is of the pension credit hotline; and how many helpline operators there are; [125406]
(3) how many calls have been received by the pension credit hotline in each week since it first opened. [125407]
Malcolm Wicks: The Pension Service began in April 2003 to write to pensioner households to explain pension credit and to invite applications. The letters include the number of the freephone application line (0800 99 1234) and a separate textphone number (0800 169 0133). By June 2004, all pensioner households will have been contacted in this way. The two numbers will also be included in an advertising campaign scheduled to begin in September 2003. The application line will have around 1,500 whole-time equivalent staff when pension credit is implemented in October 2003. Information on the number of calls received is not available in the format requested. The number of calls received by the application line between 7 April 2003, when the line went live, and 30 June 2003 was 114,000.
16 Jul 2003 : Column 433W
Pension Payments
Mr. Alan Reid: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how the Government will pay pensions after current pension books expire to pensioners who currently use their pension book to collect their pension at a Post Office and who do not nominate a bank account or a Post Office Card Account into which they wish their pension to be paid. [125380]
Mr. Pond [holding answer 11 July 2003]: Customers will be supplied with information that clearly sets out their account options. This will enable them to choose the account which best meets their needs and circumstances. An alternative method of payment will be available for those who are genuinely unable to open or operate any type of bank account.
Pensioner Income
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what forecasts his Department has made of average pensioner income levels over the next five years. [119234]
Malcolm Wicks: The Department for Work and Pensions does not make forecasts of future pensioner incomes. However to project future expenditure on Pension Credit it was assumed that pensioner income brought to account would increase in line with earnings.
The Pensioner Income Series 2000–01 shows that the average net income before housing costs of pensioner couples in 2000–01 was 301 and the average income of single pensioners was £160 per week (amounts shown in 2000–01 price terms).
The average net income of pensioners grew by around 23 per cent. in real terms between 1994–05 and 2001–02.
Pensions
Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when and how people whose retirement pensions are paid monthly into their bank accounts have been informed of the availability of weekly payment. [125286]
Mr. Pond: The Department has no plans to contact customers who currently receive four-weekly payments into a bank or building society account. Customers will only be contacted if they are directly affected by the change to Direct Payment. Therefore for those pensioners currently paid four weekly directly into their account, payment frequency will remain the same. Any pensioners from this group, who wish to change to weekly payments, will need to contact the Pension Service to request this.
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer of 23 June 2003, Official Report, column 630W on pensions, what plans he has to update the figures quoted by the right hon. Member of Makerfield (Mr. McCartney) on 26 November 2002, Official Report, column 210W. [126391]
Malcolm Wicks: Departmental analysts are currently working on processing and investigating NIRS2 data covering the financial years up to 2000–01. It is intended that this data will be published in the Autumn.
16 Jul 2003 : Column 434W
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioner households there are in each region of Great Britain. [125949]
Malcolm Wicks: The information is not available in the format requested. However, the information in the table shows the number of households in receipt of a winter fuel payment containing a person of state pension age (60 for women, 65 for men) in each government office region of Great Britain.
| Government office region | Households in receipt of a winter fuel payment containing a person of state pension age |
|---|---|
| North East | 300,000 |
| North West | 900,000 |
| Yorkshire and the Number | 700,000 |
| East Midlands | 500,000 |
| West Midlands | 700,000 |
| East of England | 700,000 |
| London | 800,000 |
| South East | 1,100,000 |
| South West | 700,000 |
| Wales | 400,000 |
| Scotland | 600,000 |
| Total | 7,400,000 |
Note:
1. Figures include people in residential care
2. Numbers of pensioner households are rounded to the nearest 100,000
Source:
Information taken from the winter fuel payment 2002/03 administrative database
Policy Simulation Model
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the use of the policy simulation model by his Department; and if he will place its specifications in the Library. [125950]
Malcolm Wicks: The Department for Work and Pension's Policy Simulation Model is a static microsimulation model used by analysts within the department to estimate the budgetary and distributional impacts of a range of hypothetical and actual policy changes. The model is similar in purpose and functionality to those maintained by HM Treasury (IGOTM), the Institute for Fiscal Studies (TAXBEN) and the Cambridge Microsimulation Unit (POLIMOD). An overview of the model has been placed in the Library.
Public Service Agreements
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps the Department has taken to publicise its Public Service Agreement targets; and at what cost to public funds. [114450]
Malcolm Wicks: The Department for Work and Pensions reports progress against Public Service Agreement targets in routine publications, such as the annual Departmental Report and Autumn Performance Report. These are also available to the public on the Department's website (www.dwp.gov.uk.) and to staff via the intranet. These incur no significant additional cost to public funds.
16 Jul 2003 : Column 435W
SchlumbergerSema
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the levels of performance against the key performance targets in respect of SchlumbergerSema in (a) March, (b) April and (c) May 2003; whether a financial penalty has been imposed for failure to meet targets in these months; and if he will make a statement. [122466]
Maria Eagle: A table showing the levels of achievement against 15 key performance targets in each of the three contract packages for March, April and May 2003, has been placed in the Library.
Service credits for failure to meet contractual service level targets have been applied as appropriate in each of those three months.
Social Fund
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his plans are to reform the Social Fund. [121123]
Mr. Lazarowicz: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the Government's plans to reform the Social Fund. [126262]
Mr. Pond: As my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer confirmed in his recent budget report, we are considering the case for further reform of the Social Fund.
Stakeholder Pensions
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his Answer of 8 July 2003, Official Report, column 764–65W, on stakeholder schemes, how many companies the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority has fined for non-compliance with the workplace access requirements for stakeholder pensions schemes; and what the average value was of those fines. [126390]
Malcolm Wicks: The Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (Opra) regulates compliance with the Stakeholder Pensions workplace access requirements by responding to whistleblowers' reports and by using surveys targeted by region and business sector. When cases of non-compliance come to light, Opra focuses on working with the employer to rectify the situation rather than taking a merely punitive approach. Since the requirements came into force on 8 October 2001, Opra has received 440 reports concerning the stakeholder access requirements. To date, 427 of these cases have been closed, either because, as a result of Opra and the employer working together, full compliance was achieved, or because the employer proved to be exempt from the requirements. The remaining 13 cases are still under investigation by Opra.
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