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21 Oct 2004 : Column 911W—continued
Pension Credit
Sir Archy Kirkwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the cost of increasing the allowable period of absence for pension credit claimants who leave the country to 13 weeks. [192967]
Malcolm Wicks: Officials are still researching a range of options for potentially extending the period for which pension credit can continue to be paid for customers who go abroad for less than 52 weeks. However, we estimate that the cost of extending the period to 13 weeks would be an additional £5 million per year.
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people living in the Maidenhead constituency are (a) eligible for and (b) in receipt of pension credit. [191337]
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 400,000 households in the South East Government Office Region (GOR), corresponding to approximately 500,000 individuals (rounded to the nearest 50,000), are likely to be eligible for pension credit in 2004–05. Information on the number of pension credit recipients in the South East GOR and in Maidenhead is given in the table.
| Households | Individuals | |
|---|---|---|
| South East GOR | 268,365 | 321,530 |
| Maidenhead | 2,190 | 2,630 |
(26) Figures are rounded to the nearest five
(27) Individual recipients include a small number of partners under age 60
Pension Service
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners have attended local Pension Service outreach surgeries in each year since their inception; and if he will make a statement. [190878]
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Malcolm Wicks: Information is not available in the format requested. However, figures can be provided from April 2003 to September 2004 and are provided in the following table:
| Number of customers seen | |
|---|---|
| April 2003 to March 2004 | 301,043 |
| April 2004 to September 2004 | 173,379 |
The term "information points" will be now be used instead of "surgeries" to better describe the outreach services for our customers as local service moves towards supporting partners in running these activities.
Details of local service information points can be obtained by telephoning the single "lo call" access number for The Pension Service (0845 60 60 265) or by visiting The Pension Service website: www.thepensionservice. gsi.gov.uk Locally, details of local service information points are often available in libraries, GP surgeries, and advertised in the local press and radio.
Pensioners
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many households in (a) Yorkshire and Humber and (b) City of York received (i) winter fuel payments and (ii) free television licences in 2003–04. [191240]
Malcolm Wicks: In winter 2003–04 there were 720,940 households in Yorkshire and Humber and 14,565 households in the City of York that received the winter fuel payment.
The number of households with at least one resident aged 75 or over in (a) Yorkshire and Humber is 292,095 and (b) City of York is 6,525. Each of these households would therefore be eligible for a free TV licence.
Notes:
1. Number is rounded to the nearest 5.
2. Any residence found to have four or more occupants is not included in these figures as it is assumed to be a residential care or nursing home.
3. Parliamentary constituencies have been allocated using the relevant ONS postcode directory.
Source:
IAD Information Centre, WFP data winter 2003–04 100 per cent. sample.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners in Yeovil constituency had an annual income of less than £5,000 in 2003–04; and if he will make a statement. [191314]
Malcolm Wicks: The information requested is not available.
Mr. David Marshall: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many (a) men and (b) women living in the city of Glasgow are in receipt of state retirement pension; and what percentage of the city's population these figures represent; [191005]
(2) how many pensioners living in the city of Glasgow are in receipt of the additional payments made to pensioners over the age of 80 years. [191003]
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Malcolm Wicks: The number of men and women living in the city of Glasgow who were in receipt of state pension as at 31 March 2004 and the percentage of the city's population these figures represent is in the table:
| Recipients of state pension in city of Glasgow | Percentage of the city of Glasgow population | |
|---|---|---|
| All | 107,600 | 18.6 |
| Men | 36,300 | 6.3 |
| Women | 71,300 | 12.4 |
Notes:
1. State pension recipient figures relate to people getting any state pension (basic or additional) or graduated retirement benefit who reside in the city of Glasgow unitary authority.
2. Population figures are taken from mid-2003.
3. Population data sources are Office for National Statistics (ONS) and General Register Office, Scotland.
4. Figures for state pension recipients and age addition are from a 5 per cent. sample and are rounded to the nearest hundred.
5. The additional winter fuel payment figure represents a 100 per cent. sample rounded to the nearest 5.
6. Figures for state pension recipients and age addition payments are obtained from a 5 per cent. sample of cases and are therefore subject to a high degree of sampling variation.
7. Local authorities are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant Office for National Statistics postcode directory.
Source:
1. IAD information Centre, 5 per cent. sample for state pension and age addition figures.
2. IAD Information Centre, 100 per cent. sample for winter fuel payment figure.
As at 31 March 2004 there were 19,000 State Pension recipients in the city of Glasgow over the age of 80 in receipt of the age addition to state pension.
In winter 2003–04 the total number of pensioners in the city of Glasgow who received the additional winter fuel payment for those aged 80 or over was 19,575.
Pensions (Indexation)
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the impact of reductions in the limited price indexation of pensions on incentives to provide for retirement. [191546]
Malcolm Wicks: The Green Paper on pensions made it clear that we would not introduce any change to mandatory indexation unless we had good reason to believe that it would result in increased coverage of occupational pensions. The decision to reduce the Limited Price Indexation cap for defined benefit pensions was made in the context of our proposal to introduce a Pension Protection Fund. In order to ease the financial burden that the PPF would impose on employers, we took steps to balance the costs by reducing the LPI cap from 5 per cent. to 2.5 per cent. The PPF will improve incentives to save by providing essential security for scheme members and will thus increase confidence in, and coverage of, occupational pensions.
Work-related Injury/Illness
Mr. Bercow:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) the UK
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and (b) Buckinghamshire left the work force following injury or illness caused at work in each year since 2002. [191040]
Jane Kennedy: Statistical sources on work place injury and illness do not provide a basis for reliable estimates of the data requested. However, since 1999 there has been a Eurostat module on employment in the Spring Labour Force Survey (LFS) covering special topics. In 2002 this covered employment of disabled people and indicated that in the United Kingdom an estimated 29,000 1 people gave up work in the previous 12 months as a result of a work-related accident or injury (including work-related road traffic accidents) or work-related diseases and illnesses. The module cannot provide reliable estimates at county level.
Note:
The statistical 95 per cent. confidence interval around this estimate runs from 22,000 to 37,000 people.
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