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13 Oct 2004 : Column 287W—continued
WORK AND PENSIONS
Benefits
Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the (a) capital limits and (b) earnings disregards are for each income related benefit; and on what date each of the limits and disregards was first set. [188720]
Mr. Pond: The requested information has been placed in the Library.
Child Support Agency
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many Child Support Agency enforcement cases against self employed non-resident parents there have been in the last three years; and what percentage have been successful in recovering payment. [190270]
Mr. Pond: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Chris Ruane, dated 13 October 2004:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Child Support Agency enforcement cases against self employed non-resident parents there have been in the last three years; and what percentage have been successful in recovering payment.
We are unable to provide these figures as we do not record employment status on the relevant information system. However, I can tell you that the last 3 years:
| Number | |
|---|---|
| Liability orders were granted by the court | 7,814 |
| Third party debt orders lodged were lodged at court | 608 |
| Charging orders were lodged at court | 718 |
| Committal files have been referred to solicitors | 328 |
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total amount is of maintenance arrears outstanding in respect of self-employed non-resident parents who are subject to or awaiting CSA enforcement action. [190271]
Mr. Pond: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Chris Ruane, dated 13 October 2004:
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total amount is of maintenance arrears outstanding in respect of self-employed non-resident parents who are subject to or awaiting Child Support Agency enforcement action.
We are unable to provide the information as we do not separately identify those cases whose main source of income is from self-employment.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many Child Support Agency enforcement cases in respect of self-employed non-resident parents are outstanding. [190453]
Mr. Pond: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Chris Ruane, dated 13 October 2004:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Child Support Agency enforcement cases in respect of self-employed non-resident parents are outstanding.
There are currently 14,856 cases with our specialist enforcement teams. I am unable to say how many of these derive their main source of income from self-employment.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many requests for traces the Child Support Agency have made to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in the last three years under the Service Level Agreement. [190454]
Mr. Pond: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Chris Ruane, dated 13 October 2004:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many requests for traces the Child Support Agency have made to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in the last three years under the Service Level Agreement.
In the period 1 April 2002 to 31 August 2004 a total of 1,319 referrals were made for information to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what percentage of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency traces carried out for the Child Support Agency were successful; and how many led to further enforcement action. [190455]
Mr. Pond: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Chris Ruane, dated 13 October 2004:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what percentage of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency traces carried out for the Child Support Agency were successful; and how many led to further enforcement action.
In the period 1 April 2002 to 31 August 2004 we made 1,319 referrals for information to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. Of these 393 were successful in gaining the information sought. Our records do not show how many then led to enforcement action.
Pension/Benefit Payments
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what deadlines have been set regarding the conversion to direct payment; and if he will make a statement on the progress made so far. [190154]
Mr. Pond: The Department is on course to meet the Public Service Agreement target to pay 85 per cent. of our customers by direct payment by 2005.
Research has shown that nine out of 10 of our customers who have chosen to receive their pension or benefit into an account have found it a more flexible, convenient and safer method of getting their money.
Key figures on the progress of conversion to direct payment are available in the House of Commons Library updated every four weeks.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assistance his Department has given to pensioners with (a) mental and (b) physical health problems in choosing how they wish to have their pension paid. [190283]
Mr. Pond: We have liaised with customer representative groups (including CAB, Help the Aged, Age Concern, MIND) to ensure there is a shared understanding of the needs of our customers.
All customers including pensioners 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. Customers will
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need to look at all of the features of the different options and choose an account to suit their individual needs and circumstances.
Cheque payments will be available from later this month for those customers who are unable to open or manage an account.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what procedures he has put in place to (a) detect and (b) monitor fraud in relation to chip and pin numbers for cards for withdrawal of pensions and benefits. [190284]
Mr. Pond: Card fraud is entirely a matter for the banks, and for Post Office Ltd. in respect of the post office card account. The banking industry takes plastic card fraud seriously and is extremely active in managing it. Once conversion to chip and pin is complete cards should be even more secure from fraudulent activities.
Direct Payment is far more secure than order books. We used to lose around £50 million a year on order book fraud and about 100 pensioners a week had their order books stolen. We will monitor Direct Payment closely and will take action as necessary to deal with fraud.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent estimate his Department has made of how many pensioners do not have a bank account. [190287]
Mr. Pond: In the UK, 91 per cent. of pensioners have a bank or building society account which is suitable to receive Direct Payments.
It is evident that Direct Payment is becoming increasingly popular, particularly with pensioners. Around 80 per cent. 1 of pensioner new claims are being paid by Direct Payment.
1 This figure was taken from the Family Resources survey 2002–03. DWP are the managers of this survey which is currently conducted by the Office of National Statistics and the National Centre for Social Research.
Note:
This information is from August 2004 data—GMS GB source, based on 100 per cent. of new claim records.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what guidelines his Department has issued to call-centre operatives to ensure objective information is provided to pensioners on whether to opt for a bank account or a post office account; and if he will make a statement. [190456]
Mr. Pond: All Department for Work and Pensions staff including call centre operatives have been provided with information on all of the account options available to the customer. The role of our staff is to provide factual information on the features of the different account options available to the customer. The customer can then decide which type of account they choose to have their money paid into based on their individual needs and circumstances.
Independent research commissioned by DWP shows 93 per cent. of customers found that the information they received was clear and 93 per cent. were happy once they had transferred to Direct Payment.
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Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pension and benefit recipients failed to respond to direct payment form requests and are being paid through weekly Giro payments. [190458]
Mr. Pond: Key figures on the progress of conversion to Direct Payment are available in the Library updated every four weeks.
We are continuing to contact existing customers to invite them to provide account details. Those customers who have not yet provided their account details will be contacted again to discuss their account options, unless they have already advised the Department that they genuinely cannot open or manage an account.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the cost to the Department of transferring all pension and benefit accounts to direct payments. [190459]
Mr. Pond:
The total DWP one-off cost of the Payment Modernisation Programme over the full 10-year investment period 1999–2000 to 2009–10 is approximately £412 million.
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However, significant savings are expected from both administration costs of around £440 million per annum and a reduction in fraud of around £50 million per annum.
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