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22 Jul 2004 : Column 445W—continued
Pension Credit
Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of pension credit payments are being paid into Post Office card accounts. [186257]
Jane Kennedy:
At 30 June the number of live pension credit accounts was 2,548,895, of which 198,230 or 7.8 per cent. were paid to a Post Office card account. Of the total, 893,835 were not previously receiving
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minimum income guarantee. Of these cases, 40,110, or 4.5 per cent. were being paid to a Post Office card account.
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people eligible for pension credit have not taken it up in each month since October 2003; and how much money this represents in each case. [184940]
Malcolm Wicks: The information is not available in the form requested. The table sets out numbers of pension credit recipients in each month between October 2003 and June 2004, with the average weekly award. We estimate that approximately 3.75 million households, corresponding to around 4.85 million individuals, are likely to be eligible for pension credit in Great Britain in 2004–05. This estimate, rounded to the nearest 50,000 households or individuals, is subject to a wide margin of error and should be used as a broad indication of the likely eligible population only.
To help ensure that people do not lose out, entitlement to pension credit can, where appropriate, be backdated by up to 12 months.
| Households | Individuals | Average weekly award (£) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 2003 | 1,795,875 | 2,109,200 | 47.10 |
| November 2003 | 2,056,010 | 2,454,640 | 46.40 |
| December 2003 | 2,115,195 | 2,533,960 | 44.20 |
| January 2004 | 2,172,280 | 2,610,450 | 43.50 |
| February 2004 | 2,264,115 | 2,731,480 | 42.60 |
| March 2004 | 2,401,850 | 2,907,775 | 41.34 |
| April 2004 | 2,445,660 | 2,961,885 | 41.67 |
| May 2004 | 2,496,970 | 3,028,390 | 42.42 |
| June 2004 | 2,548,895 | 3,094,870 | 41.99 |
Notes:
1. October 2003 figures are as at 17 October 2003. Figures from November 2003 to June 2004 are mid-monthly and have been rated up to give month end estimates.
2. Figures are rounded to the nearest 5.
3. Individual recipients include a number of partners under age 60.
Mr. Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many pensioners are estimated to be eligible for the pension credit in Leicester South; [186263]
(2) how many pensioners are claiming the pension credit in Leicester South. [186264]
Malcolm Wicks: Information on the number of people likely to be eligible for pension credit is not available at constituency level. However, we estimate that approximately 250,000 households in the East Midlands region, corresponding to approximately 350,000 individuals (rounded to the nearest 50,000), are likely to be eligible for pension credit in 2004–05. At the end of June, 5,135 pensioner households in Leicester South, comprising 6,415 individuals (rounded to the nearest five), were in receipt of pension credit. The corresponding figures for the East Midlands at the same date were 182,570 households and 224,435 individuals in receipt of pension credit.
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners in Northampton, North have received home visits from the Pension Service to assist them with claiming pension credit. [185785]
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Malcolm Wicks: The table shows the number of home visits undertaken by the local service of the Pension Service in the Northampton local service cluster, which includes both Northampton, North and Northampton, South, between April 2003 and June 2004. All visits undertaken since April 2003 have covered pension credit.
| Number of visits | |
|---|---|
| 2003 | |
| April | 120 |
| May | 117 |
| June | 150 |
| July | 171 |
| August | 148 |
| September | 159 |
| October | 206 |
| November | 161 |
| December | 88 |
| 2004 | |
| January | 153 |
| February | 134 |
| March | 336 |
| April | 122 |
| May | 170 |
| June | 153 |
Pension Credit Application Line
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer of 3 February 2004, Official Report, columns 833–34W, if he will provide the information on calls to the pension credit application line for each month since January for which figures are available. [185734]
Malcolm Wicks: The available information is shown in the table.
| Calls received by application line | Calls receiving engaged tone or recorded message | Calls answered within 30 seconds | Average call duration (minutes: seconds) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 495,560 | 120 | 429,670 | 08:12 |
| February | 433,790 | 190 | 372,930 | 08:34 |
| March | 430,070 | 230 | 378,440 | 08:38 |
| April | 346,890 | 13,560 | 250,970 | 09:18 |
| May | 234,580 | 20 | 212,570 | 08:48 |
| June | 315,200 | 20 | 266,040 | 07:20 |
Notes:
1. Numbers of calls are rounded to the nearest 10.
2. The number of calls receiving the engaged tone or a recorded message was unusually high in April due to reduced numbers of staff as a result of industrial action. The number of lines feeding into the application line from the network was reduced to avoid people having to wait for a long time for an answer (instead they received a recorded message).
3. The number of calls received is a measure of the total number of calls from customers made to the application line number 0800 99 1234. The number of calls answered within 30 seconds is a measure of all calls answered in application line sites and excludes any calls abandoned by the customer.
Pension Payment Arrangements
Norman Baker:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what percentage of
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pensioners in (a) England, (b) East Sussex and (c) Lewes constituency are using pension books to collect their pensions at a post office. [185905]
Mr. Pond: Information available on pensioners (women over 60 and men over 65) as at 15 May 2004 in (a) England (b) East Sussex and (c) Lewes constituency receiving their retirement pension by order books, collectable at a post office, is shown in the table.
| Accounts paid by order book | Percentage of retirement pension accounts paid by order book | |
|---|---|---|
| England | 2,936,800 | 37 |
| East Sussex | 32,505 | 28.40 |
| Lewes | 5,210 | 25.60 |
Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest five.
2. Figures do not include retirement pension combined with pension credit in a single payment.
Source:
IAD information Centre, 100 per cent. sample.
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been spent to date on the change of pension payment arrangements from book to bank account; and how much of that has been spent on contact with recipients. [185906]
Mr. Pond: We are unable to answer in the format requested.
As at the 31 March 2004 the Department had, through its payment modernisation programme, incurred £210 million towards converting benefit and pensions customers from paper based methods of payment to payment by direct payment. Of this total around £90 million related to the cost of contacting benefit and pension customers. With the remainder being spent on project team costs, IT development, marketing and training of staff.
Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners who receive their pensions by giro have agreed an alternative means of payment with the Government. [159752]
Mr. Pond: Only a very small number of pensions customers receive their pension by giro, and in the 12 month period ending 24 January 2004 less than 50 changed to another method of payment.
Almost nine out of ten (87 per cent) of benefit customers already have an account suitable for Direct Payment, and this rises to 90 per cent. for pensioners.
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment his Department has made of the importance of regular income in helping the elderly budget for their needs. [186253]
Mr. Pond:
The Government acknowledge the importance of pension payment arrangements that reflect elderly people's budgeting needs. We therefore offer a range of payment frequencies for benefits. Pensioners can choose to have their state pension paid weekly, four weekly or 13 weekly; pension credit is paid weekly.
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The move to Direct Payment involves no changes to customers' existing benefit and pension payment frequencies. Pensioners who receive their pension by weekly order book will continue to receive their pension weekly when they transfer to Direct Payment.
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what proportion of pension payments paid into bank accounts since the beginning of the current financial year have not been paid seven days after the previous payment; [186249]
(2) how many bank accounts into which pensions are directly paid have had at least one occasion where the payment has not been paid exactly seven days after the last one; [186251]
(3) what steps he has taken to ensure that pensions paid into bank accounts are done paid every seven days. [186252]
Mr. Pond: The information is not available in the format requested.
Pensioners can choose to have their state pension paid weekly, four weekly or 13 weekly; pension credit is paid weekly.
Since the beginning of the financial year there have been no occasions when pension payments generally have been paid late into bank accounts. However there will have been individual cases where a change of circumstance has caused a review of the award, which may delay a payment. There may also be instances where banks have rejected payments because of changes to account details or similar circumstances.
The Department ensures that payments due payment on a bank holiday are advanced so that customers can get the money before the holiday. The general rule for direct payment is that payment due on a UK bank holiday (including 2 January in Scotland) is advanced to the last banking day before the holiday.
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions into how many bank accounts pensions are directly paid. [186250]
Mr. Pond: The information is not available in the format requested.
However, information is available to show that, as at 15 May 2004, 6,794,800 pensions accounts were paid by direct payment. Included in his total are 377,130 payments direct into a Post Office card account.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners have migrated from over-the-counter benefit payments to automated credit transfer in each month since May 1997. [177553]
Mr. Pond: The precise information is not available in the format requested. The number of pensioners (women over 60 and men over 65) that have migrated from over the counter benefit payments to direct payments each month since 15 June 2002 is shown in the table.
Notes:
The following special points should be noted:
1. Figures produced by comparing two snapshots of live accounts in payment on the specified dates where the method of payment variable has changed to direct payment on the second dataset.
2. Figures produced relate to accounts not claimants, a benefit recipient may therefore have more than one account. Figures do not include any benefit payment that is made "in combination", through another benefit system, such as state pension paid through the pension credit system as a combined payment.
3. Over the counter payments includes order books and giros.
4. Figures are rounded to the nearest 5.
5. Figures refer to pensioner age benefit recipients residing in GB only.
6. Included in these figures is payments made to customers by girocheque. Girocheques are encashable at either a bank/building society account or a post office.
7. Some customers who are paid direct into an account can also collect their payments in cash at post offices through the wider range of banking services now available at the post office. There is no data available on the number of benefit claims collected in this way.
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