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17 Nov 2003 : Column 484W—continued

Unemployment

22. Mr. Borrow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on long-term trends in unemployment. [138655]

Mr. Browne: Labour market statistics continue to show employment growing and unemployment on a downward trend. In the last month the unemployment figure fell from 3.1 per cent. to 3.0 per cent., the lowest figure in over 25 years.

These are great achievements. But we know we still have more to do. We are working to ensure that all groups of people, in all parts of the country, have access to job opportunities and are given the support they need to overcome the barriers they face.

Pensioner Incomes

23. Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent assessment he has made of the effect of Government policy on the incomes of (a) the poorest pensioners and (b) all pensioners. [138656]

Malcolm Wicks: As a result of Government measures already undertaken since 1997, including the introduction of pension credit in October, on average:

pensioner households will be £1,250 a year better off in real terms—around £24 extra a week; and


the poorest third of pensioner households will have gained £1,600 a year in real terms.

Providing a decent income for the poorest pensioners is key. Since April 2003, no pensioner has to get by on less than £102.10 per week (£155.80 for couples).

Age Discrimination

24. Dr. Palmer: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will take steps to bring about the early elimination of age discrimination in employment. [138657]

Mr. Browne: We are committed to introducing legislation to outlaw age discrimination in employment in October 2006. Meanwhile we shall continue to promote the employment of those aged 50 and over through our Age Positive Campaign.

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Asbestos Surveyors

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many United Kingdom Accreditation Service asbestos surveyors are registered in the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement. [137814]

Mr. Browne: The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) has accredited 50 organisations that carry out inspections for asbestos in buildings. A further 40 organisations have applied for accreditation. The Department holds no information on the numbers of surveyors employed by these organisations.

Council Tax Benefit

Mr. Dhanda: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department is taking to encourage people on low incomes to claim council tax benefit. [138653]

Mr. Pond: Local authorities have a statutory duty to promote council tax benefit for which they use leaflets, posters and information on websites. Most authorities also include information when issuing council tax bills.

A specific leaflet on council tax benefit is available from post offices, as well as information included in generic departmental guides.

Automated Credit Transfer

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have migrated from over-the-counter post office benefit payments to direct bank transfer since 1 April in (a) Haltemprice and Howden, (b) the East Riding of Yorkshire and (c) England. [116766]

Mr. Pond: The information is not available in the precise format requested.

Information has been compiled from the data available on 22 March 2003 and that available on 6 September 2003, and is shown in the following table.

Number of customers receiving benefits that have migrated from payments at post offices to those paid into bank, building society or Post Office card accounts, which may also be collectable at post offices, between 22 March 2003 and 6 September 2003

	Number of customers
Haltemprice and Howden constituency	1,570
East Riding of Yorkshire local authority	6,615
England	977,770

The above figures are payload not caseload figures, therefore a claimant may be counted more than once if they are on several benefits.

Notes:

Customers who have chosen to be paid into a bank account a Post Office card account will continue to be paid by order book until their present order book runs out, and will not have been included in the numbers above where that order book was still current on 6 September.

Source:

DWP Information Centre, Information and Analysis Directorate (100 per cent. data).

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what percentage of recipients in each benefit category do not have a bank account; what

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measures his Department is taking to encourage the take-up of the Post Office card accounts by those without a bank or building society account; and what targets his Department has set for the paying of benefits by automatic credit transfer to those without a bank or building society account. [137745]

Mr. Pond: The following table shows the percentage of recipients in each benefit category that do not have a bank account suitable for direct payment. This information has been derived from the data used to compile the Family Resources Survey ¹ (FRS) 2001–02.

Benefit	Per cent. of recipients in each benefit category that do not have a bank account suitable fordirect payment
Working age benefits	33
Disability and carer's benefit	23
Retirement pension(7)	10
Child benefit	12
War pensions	8
All benefits	13

⁽⁷⁾ Excluding MIG cases.

The Department has a published Public Service Agreement target that by 2005, 85 per cent. of customers will have their benefits paid by direct payment. People are being provided with all the information they need on all of their "account options", including which accounts can be used at post office branches. It will be up to the customers themselves to decide which type of account they wish to have their money paid into. Already 87 per cent. of all customers have access to a bank account that can receive direct payment.

The move to direct payment is progressing well. Key figures on the progress of conversion to direct payment are available in the Library, updated every four weeks.

¹ GB household survey of people aged 16 and above and not in full time, non-advanced education.

Carers Allowance

John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of people aged over 65 years in (a) Glasgow, Anniesland and (b) the United Kingdom, who have an underlying entitlement to carers allowance but who cannot receive it because they are also in receipt of the state pension. [136943]

Maria Eagle: Information for Great Britain is as follows.

Number of people aged over 65 years who have an underlying entitlement to carers allowance but who do not receive payment due to the receipt of State Pension as at 31 May 2003

	Number of people aged 65 and over who are entitled but do not receive payment
Anniesland Glasgow	140
Great Britain	54,625

Note:

Figures are rounded to the nearest 5

Source:

IAD Information Centre, 100 per cent. sample

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It is assumed all people with an overlapping benefit who are over 65 are not receiving Carers Allowance because of State Pension.

Employment Statistics

Ms Munn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the number of people (a) in employment now and (b) in employment in 1997, broken down by (i) permanent and (ii) temporary employment. [138636]

Mr. Browne: Building on a platform of sound economic management, our welfare-to-work policies have helped increase the number of people in permanent employment by nearly two million since 1997.

We are now at record levels of employment and this has been achieved against a background of economic stability. As the number of people in employment has risen, the number of people in temporary jobs has actually fallen by over 260,000.

Hospital Patients (Benefit Cuts)

Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much the abolition of benefit cuts for patients in the first 52 weeks of a hospital stay has cost his Department. [138622]

Malcolm Wicks: The estimated cost of increasing the period of time to 52 weeks before relevant benefits are reduced is £65 million per year.

Notes:

1. Costs are based on 2001–02 administrative data and average amounts. Numbers are rounded to the nearest million and expressed in 2003–04 terms.

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2. Costs take into account all benefits covered by the change from six to 52 weeks.

IT Expenditure

Dr. Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what major IT projects with a value in excess of £10,000 he authorised expenditure on in each of the last three financial years. [125723]

Mr. Browne: Expenditure on projects is formally approved by the Department's governance process and authorised through review gates. These reviews ensure that projects are meeting the standards we expect (including business change, technical, financial and commercial criteria) before authority to progress to the next stage of their development is given.

Major IT projects are those contained within our modernisation programme which is regularly reviewed by the Secretary of State. The following table outlines the major IT projects included in the programme during the period April 2000 to March 2003 and provides supplementary information regarding the stage each project has reached and its key achievements to date. For completeness it includes two major modernisation projects to create new infrastructure for Jobcentre Plus and the Pension Service.

The key stages in the Department's project lifecycle are defined as follows:

0. Initial feasibility


1. Define and initiate


2. Design changes


3. Develop changes


4. Implement changes; realise benefits

It should be noted that project details may alter as they pass through the project lifecycle.

Project Name—2000–03	What stage theproject has reached	Key achievements to date
Child support reform (CSR)	Implement Changes	Since 3 March 2003, new child support claims have been calculated using the new rules and new IT.
Customer management system	Implement changes	This system currently being rolled out will allow information supplied by customers to be gathered electronically by staff, improving efficiency and customer service. Staff will be able to check information supplied against that already held and issue the customer with a statement reflecting the information supplied.
Debt management	Implement changes	October 2003: Nine out of ten debt centres now set-up.
Digital office infrastructure (DOI) previously known as early office infrastructure	Implement changes	DOI aims to implement a modern IT infrastructure platform across the Department allowing staff access to modern business software. By October 2003 over 128.000 PCs had been installed.
Modernising the employment service	Realised benefits	March 2001: Worktrain website launched.
		February 2001: network of Jobpoint kiosks completed.
		October 2001: Employer Direct service goes national.
Corporate intranet	Implement changes	June 2001: Corporate Intranet redesigned to support creation of DWP.
		December 2002 all DWP staff have access to intranet following completion of DOI and MES desktops roll-outs.
Jobcentre plus implementation	Implement changes	Rollout of integrated offices across the country, replacing the Social Security and Employment Offices (286 to date) currently in place. Jobcentre Plus offices allow customers to access employment opportunities and benefit information in a modern environment.
New tax credits	Implement changes	January 2003: IT Gateway between Inland Revenue and DWP went live.
		April 2003: Payment of new awards of child tax credit and working tax credit start.
		October 2003: 30,000 minimum income guarantee child premium cases successfully completed.
Payment modernisation programme	Implement changes	From April 2003: Direct payment becomes the normal method of payment for new customers. Benefit systems aligned to accommodate direct payments.
Universal banking programme	Implement changes	1 April 2003: Universal banking go live—new banking services available at post offices including Post Office card accounts.
Pension credit	Implement changes	April 2003: Advance application for pension credit invited.
		May 2003: Minimum income guarantee to pension credit—conversion started.
		October 2003: Pension credit payable. 1.97 million pensioner households are now in receipt—of which 82,000 are as a result of new pension credit awards in October. Pension credit application line have taken their millionth call.
Pensions transformation programme (PTP)	Design changes	The project is currently focusing on designing and delivering changes to the Pension Service organisation, business processes, services and IT.
Implementation of the Pension Service, including project empower	Realised benefits	26 pension centres operational, including those part of the Project Empower (Burnley and Swansea)
Resource management system	Develop changes	The project is configuring standard Oracle software and implementing best practice processes to replace the Department's existing resource management systems.
Pensions forecasting	Implement changes	October 2001: Combined pensions forecasting service available.
Interactive e-services	Implement changes	April 2003 customers are able to claim child benefit and provide information about changes of circumstances electronically via the internet.
ISCS/JSAPS modernisation project	Define and initiate	The Department's updated IS/IT strategy has identified new ways of delivering IT improvements at lower risk. The modernisation of our income support and jobseekers allowance systems is now being taken forward in line with updated IS/IT strategy principles for example, a preference for commercially available packages rather than bespoke development and staged incremental improvements rather than "big bang" replacement.
Modernising appeals programme	Initial feasibility	The programme was refocused in October 2003 because of doubts about its cost effectiveness. A new feasibility study has been commissioned to look at lower cost approaches, and to include any business change requirements resulting from the move to the Department of Constitutional Affairs.

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