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Post Office Card Accounts

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 27 February 2004, Official Report, column 604W, on direct payment, how many (a) Post Office card accounts and (b) bank or building society accounts have been requested for (i) state pension and pension credit and (ii) Jobcentre Plus payments; and if he will break down the number of accounts receiving payments (A) of state pension and pension credit and (B) payments from Jobcentre Plus by region. [162737]

Mr. Pond [holding answer 22 March 2004]: The information is not available in the format requested.

As at 15 August the total number of Post Office card accounts requested since 1 April 2003 was 3,255,010. (Source: Post Office Ltd. data). This figure includes customers in DWP, Social Security Agency Northern Ireland, the Veterans Agency and the Inland Revenue. These figures include persons who have claimed benefit and persons waiting for their current order book to expire before migrating to direct payment. Accounts are not designated to the particular Departments or agencies who pay into the Post Office card account.
 
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A breakdown of accounts into specific agencies or Departments is not available. A customer is only allowed one Post Office card account into which several benefits can be paid.

We do not have figures for the number of applications to open bank and building society accounts. This information is confidential between the customer and their bank or building society.

The information provided in my earlier answer of 27 February 2004, Official Report, column 604W, was from data available as at 24 January 2004. We are
 
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unable to break this total down by region because there is a problem with the geographical allocations on the 24 January 2004 dataset. The latest date for which information relating to my Department is currently available, by region, into Post Office card accounts is 23 July 2004 and is shown in the following tables together with payments into bank or building society accounts.

The number of live benefit accounts into Post Office(r) card accounts, broken down by Government office region:

	North East	North West	Yorkshire and Humberside	East Midlands	West Midlands	East of England	London
Jobcentre Plus
Bereavement Benefit (BB)	45	110	90	60	80	50	65
Incapacity Benefit (IB)	10,500	15,510	12,060	8,015	12,090	5,465	6,670
Industrial Injuries (II)	8,295	7,090	6,010	5,145	5,110	1,250	1,335
Income Support (IS)	14,940	29,470	20,295	13,145	21,295	10,965	28,170
Jobseekers Allowance (JSA)	1,465	4,015	2,605	1,755	5,595	1,945	14,130
Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA)	490	950	860	710	830	525	405
Widows Benefit (WB)	645	1,115	1,015	695	1,010	585	580
Pensioners
Pension Credit (PC)	29,160	50,615	39,255	25,975	42,305	26,780	28,200
State Pension (RP)	17,205	35,870	27,715	22,735	27,390	20,170	11,265
Total	82,750	144,755	109,900	78,230	115,700	67,745	90,820

	South East	South West	Wales	Scotland	Benefit total
Jobcentre Plus
Bereavement Benefit (BB)	70	50	25	90	740
Incapacity Benefit (IB)	5,810	6,400	9,150	14,855	106,530
Industrial Injuries (II)	3,335	2,835	4,930	5,400	50,730
Income Support (IS)	13,405	11,450	11,965	24,030	199,135
Jobseekers Allowance (JSA)	1,815	1,145	1,980	3,440	39,890
Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA)	605	620	505	805	7,310
Widows Benefit (WB)	735	605	315	1,045	8,350
Pensioners
Pension Credit (PC)	28,865	25,390	27,700	39,845	364,090
State Pension (RP)	21,965	24,265	22,280	21,940	252,805
Total	76,610	72,765	78,850	111,450	1,029,575

Source:
IAD Information Centre, 100 per cent. sample.

The number of live benefit accounts into bank or building society accounts, broken down by Government office region:

	Public Trust	North East	North West	Yorkshire and Humberside	East Midlands	West Midlands	East of England
Jobcentre Plus
Bereavement Benefit (BB)	0	1,755	4,705	3,295	2,895	3,660	3,700
Incapacity Benefit (IB)	25	51,235	114,640	73,520	59,540	73,905	55,190
Industrial Injuries (II)	0	22,295	29,360	23,425	22,045	20,065	10,835
Income Support (IS)	0	42,960	120,495	77,555	60,245	85,605	71,545
Jobseekers Allowance (JSA)	0	19,385	45,150	32,625	24,955	47,905	31,130
Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA)	40	3,065	7,785	5,480	5,045	5,540	5,750
Widows Benefit (WB)	0	4,145	11,000	7,815	7,180	9,160	9,400
Pensioners
Pension Credit (PC)	0	60,265	148,425	107,095	86,660	115,140	110,040
State Pension (RP)	20	196,760	598,700	434,810	400,810	482,150	611,750
Total	65	401,870	1,080,260	765,625	669,370	843,130	909,340

 
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	London	South East	South West	Wales	Scotland	Benefit total
Jobcentre Plus
Bereavement Benefit (BB)	3,325	5,335	3,350	1,820	4,000	37,845
Incapacity Benefit (IB)	61,195	68,810	56,260	59,585	85,295	759,200
Industrial Injuries (II)	9,520	19,395	15,020	12,980	20,995	205,935
Income Support (IS)	173,815	99,215	65,000	47,575	92,890	936,905
Jobseekers Allowance (JSA)	94,545	37,920	20,735	19,185	46,350	419,885
Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA)	5,120	8,020	5,535	3,355	6,290	61,020
Widows Benefit (WB)	11,455	14,020	8,065	3,780	9,575	95,595
Pensioners
Pension Credit (PC)	127,645	146,370	109,450	60,720	111,275	1,183,085
State Pension (RP)	555,425	950,605	606,730	242,845	455,160	5,535,765
Total	1,042,040	1,349,690	890,145	451,845	831,830	9,235,230

Source:
IAD Information Centre, 100 per cent. sample.

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what percentage of successful applicants for the pension credit have elected to receive payments to Post Office Card Accounts to date. [155597]

Mr. Pond: The information is not available in the precise form requested. However, at 31 July the number of live Pension Credit accounts was 2,581,813, of which 364,090 or 14.1 per cent. were paid to a Post Office card account. Of the total, 941,715 were not previously receiving Minimum Income Guarantee. Of these cases, 66,780, or 7.1 per cent. were being paid to a Post Office card account.

School Crossing Patrol Officers

Mr. Blizzard: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will extend the higher level of earnings disregard to benefit claims from school crossing partol officers. [190409]

Mr. Pond: This is a complex matter with wider implications, however all aspects of benefit payment, including disregards, are kept under constant review in order to ensure the far and equitable distribution of benefit and the best use of public funds. [190409]

State Second Pension

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate how many employees (a) contracted out of and (b) contracted into the second state pension in 2003–04, broken down by sex and age; and what information he gives older workers on contracting into the state second pension. [181947]

Malcolm Wicks [pursuant to his reply, 7 July 2004, Official Report, c. 764W]: The Department for Work and Pensions does not specifically provide information to older workers on contracting back into the State Second Pension. It does however publish information leaflets that contain guidance on both State and private pension provision. This guidance stresses how important it is that people regularly review their pension arrangements including decisions about whether to contract in or out, to make sure that they have the income that they need when they retire; and that they should consider taking independent advice if they feel it necessary to do so.
 
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Estimates on the number of employees contracted out of and contracted into the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) in 2000–01 (the latest year for which the information is available) broken down by age and gender, are in the following table.
Thousand

	Number contracted out		Number with SERPS membership
Age group	Men	Women	Men	Women
Under 20	50	38	467	372
20–29	1,121	1,084	1,563	1,302
30–39	3,069	2,529	901	825
40–49	2,364	1,724	678	900
50–59	1,330	872	851	742
60 and over	151	—	247	—

Note:
Figures are based on a 1 per cent. sample of the Lifetime Labour Market Database2 and are shown to the nearest thousand.
Source:
Department for Work and Pensions' Data Services Unit.

Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners in Northampton are in receipt of the state second pension. [189956]

Malcolm Wicks: The information requested is not available. Such information as is available is provided in the table.
People in receipt of additional State Pension by parliamentary constituency in Northamptonshire as at 30 September 2003.

Parliamentary constituency	Pensioners (thousand)
Corby	11.1
Daventry	11.9
Kettering North	12.6
Northampton North	10.7
Northampton South	12.2
Wellingborough	13.4

Notes:
1. The figures are in thousands and have been rounded to the nearest hundred
2. State Second Pension was introduced in April 2002. The first people to receive it would be those reaching state pension age after April 2003.
3. The figures include pensioners who are now in receipt of State Earnings Related Pension (SERPs), or SERPS and State Second Pension, or State Second Pension alone.
Source:
DWP IAD Information Centre, 5 per cent. sample of administrative data.



 
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