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19 Jan 2004 : Column 1078W—continued

New Deal

Dr. Jack Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his latest estimate is of the number of young people in (a) West Cumbria and (b) Copeland who have benefited from the New Deal; and if he will make a statement. [148010]

Mr. Browne: The New Deal for Young People has been successful in helping over 460,000 young people into work, including 1,160 people in the Copeland constituency. Figures for West Cumbria are not available; however, 4,910 young people in the Jobcentre Plus Cumbria district have been helped into work by New Deal for Young People.

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have entered the employer option under the New Deal for Young People in each year since 1997, broken down by ethnicity; how many people have entered the full-time education and training option under the New Deal for Young People in each year since 1997, broken down by ethnicity; and if he will make a statement. [147815]

Mr. Browne: The information is in the tables.

New Deal for Young People: Starts to employment option, broken down by ethnicity

	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003(39)
White	12,580	16,650	13,950	10,650	10,130	5,190
Black-Caribbean	220	330	250	160	180	70
Black-African	90	110	100	80	80	50
Black-Other	100	140	100	90	60	30
Indian	130	230	170	150	120	60
Pakistani	260	390	300	240	210	100
Bangladeshi	80	120	90	100	80	30
Chinese	10	20	20	10	10	10
Other	170	230	200	170	180	120
Prefer not to say	330	630	520	360	290	190
Missing(40)	570	300	70	20	10	0

19 Jan 2004 : Column 1079W

New Deal for Young People: Starts to full-time education and training option broken down by ethnicity

	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003(43)
White	24,300	32,480	24,600	14,320	16,800	14,600
Black-Caribbean	840	1,440	1,000	750	880	740
Black-African	690	1,070	680	710	1,040	930
Black-Other	420	610	430	330	360	290
Indian	410	590	360	250	300	220
Pakistani	890	1,200	1,000	800	880	720
Bangladeshi	260	380	230	190	240	210
Chinese	70	90	80	50	60	50
Other	700	1,230	1,110	1,090	1,840	2,190
Prefer not to say	810	1,730	1,250	820	750	730
Missing(44)	90	60	20	10	0	0

⁽⁴³⁾ To September.

⁽⁴⁴⁾ It has only been compulsory to record ethnicity on the Jobcentre Plus Labour Market System (LMS) since the spring of 2002, and some ethnicity codes were not recorded before then.

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many participants on New Deal for Young People in the Chesterfield constituency have been placed on training courses for (a) up to one year and (b) over one year in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement. [147819]

Mr. Browne: In the 12 months to September 2003, 70 people started on the New Deal for Young People (NDYP) Full-Time Education and Training Option in Chesterfield.

It is the policy of New Deal for Young People that nobody should be placed on an NDYP Full-Time Education and Training course for longer than a year.

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many participants have joined the New Deal for Young People (a) once, (b) twice, (c) three times and (d) more than three times, broken down by ethnicity; and if he will make a statement. [147820]

Mr. Browne: The information is in the following table:

New Deal for Young People: Number of times people have joined the programme broken down by ethnicity

Ethnic group	Once	Twice	Three times	More than three
White	485,660	119,620	28,400	5,000
Black-Caribbean	13,380	5,060	1,470	260
Black-African	12,270	2,980	690	130
Black-Other	6,340	1,990	490	70
Indian	11,970	2,190	450	60
Pakistani	20,670	5,080	1,180	190
Bangladeshi	7,440	1,610	330	50
Chinese	1,420	230	40	10
Other	25,120	4,440	990	170
Prefer not to say	27,730	5,390	1,050	190
Missing	6,590	70	10	0
Total	618,620	148,640	35,080	6,110

Note:

Figures are to the end of September 2003.

Source:

DWP Information and Analysis Directorate.

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Purchase: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he will reply to the question tabled by the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, North East on 16 December 2003, reference 145191, which was transferred to his Department by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. [148472]

19 Jan 2004 : Column 1080W

Mr. Pond: I replied to the hon. Member's question on 13 January.

Pension Credit

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of expenditure on the (a) guarantee credit and (b) savings credit in (i) 2003–04, (ii) 2004–05 and (iii) 2005–06. [145981]

Malcolm Wicks: The information is in the table.

£ million

	2003–04	2004–05	2005–06
Guarantee credit	4,730	4,710	5,160
Savings credit	350	1,020	1,000
Total	5,080	5,720	6,160

Notes:

1. Figures are based on latest published forecasts, published in the pre-Budget report on 10 December 2003.

2. Figures for 2003–04 include expenditure on the minimum income guarantee, prior to the introduction of pension credit. Minimum income guarantee expenditure is treated as guarantee credit. The 2003–04 guarantee credit figure also includes child elements of the minimum income guarantee totalling £50 million. These payments were replaced by child tax credits at the same time as the introduction of pension credit.

3. Note that until October 2004, new claimants will be able to claim payment for entitlement dating back to October 2003.

4. Figures are rounded to nearest £10 million.

5. Due to rounding, figures may not sum exactly to totals.

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many telephone inquiries on pension credit have been received in each of the last 12 months. [147692]

Malcolm Wicks: The table shows numbers of telephone calls received by the pension credit application line in each month since it became operational in April 2003. The application line primarily handles calls from customers about applying for pension credit, but also deals with other inquiry calls.

Calls to pension credit application line—April to December 2003

2003	Calls received
April	20,810
May	32,750
June	60,240
July	118,220
August	181,860
September	427,900
October	482,780
November	318,280
December	193,900
Total	1,836,740

Note:

Figures are rounded to the nearest ten.

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the advertising budget is for the pension credit. [147693]

Malcolm Wicks: The marketing campaign for pension credit has been designed to be flexible and the level of expenditure may change according to need. However, it is currently estimated that media costs, including direct mailing, television and press advertising, will be in the region of £12 to £17 million, excluding VAT, to October 2004.

19 Jan 2004 : Column 1081W

Dr. Jack Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners in (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland are receiving pension credit; what percentage this represents of those entitled to pension credit in each case; and if he will make a statement. [148009]

Malcolm Wicks: At 31 December 2003 there were (a) 15,950 pensioner households (18,710 individuals) in Cumbria and (b) 2,300 pensioner households (2,739 individuals) in the Copeland constituency receiving pension credit. Information on numbers of households eligible for pension credit is not available at county or constituency level. However, the number of eligible households in the North West region is estimated to be 500,000. At 31 December 2003 there were 289,000 pensioner households (344,000 individuals) in the North West region receiving pension credit.

Mr. Dhanda: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how often his Department revises the standard interest rate used to calculate the mortgage element included in the pension credit. [148863]

Malcolm Wicks: The standard interest rate is based on the weighted average of the basic rates charged by the top building societies. A change is triggered whenever the average rate which is published monthly by the Office for National Statistics increases/decreases by 0.25 per cent. or more.

Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many whole-time equivalent staff were employed by the pension credit helpline in the most recent month for which figures are available. [148969]

Malcolm Wicks: The Pension Credit application line is resourced in line with forecast levels of activity. At 5 January the application line had approximately 1,300 whole-time equivalent staff handling customer contacts. This is expected to rise to approximately 1,400 whole-time equivalent staff by late March.

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