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17 Nov 2004 : Column 1648W—continued
Benefit Entitlement (Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people are being paid the jobseeker's allowance in Newcastle-under-Lyme. [198537]
Mr. Pond: As at May 2004, there were approximately 800 people in receipt of jobseeker's allowance in the parliamentary constituency of Newcastle-under-Lyme.
1. The figure is based on 5 per cent. samples and is therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation.
Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners over 70 years have received the £100 payment for help with the council tax in Newcastle-under-Lyme. [198601]
Malcolm Wicks: It is not possible to say how many pensioners over 70 years have received the £100 payment as data for 2004–05 is not yet available. The One-off 70+ Payment is being paid in most cases with the winter fuel payment. In winter 2003–04 there were 10,660 pensioners aged 70 or over in the Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency who received a winter fuel payment. We would expect a similar number to receive the One-off 70+ Payment this winter.
2. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant ONS postcode directory.
3. Figures taken from the Matching, Intelligence, and Data Analysis Service. As only one additional £100 amount is available per household, not all of these pensioners will have received an additional £100. For example, in households with two pensioners aged 70 years or over, they will each receive an additional £50.
Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners have received cold weather payments in Newcastle-under-Lyme. [198602]
Mr. Pond: The information requested is not available by constituency.
Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners have received free TV licences in Newcastle-under-Lyme in each year since they were introduced. [198605]
Malcolm Wicks: The information on the numbers of households in receipt of free TV licences is not available by constituency. The number of households with at least one resident aged 75 or over in the Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency in each year since 2002–03 is in the table. Each of these households would therefore be eligible for a free TV licence. Household information relating to earlier years is not available.
| Households with someone aged 75 or over | |
|---|---|
| 2002–03 | 5,565 |
| 2003–04 | 5,640 |
Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest five.
2. Winter fuel payment data 2002–03 and 2003–04.
3. Any residence found to have four or more occupants aged 60 and over is not included in the household figures as it is assumed to be RCNH (residential care/nursing home).
4. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant ONS postcode directory.
Source:
IAD Information Centre, 100 per cent. sample.
Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many mothers in Newcastle-under-Lyme have received the Sure Start maternity grant in each year since its introduction. [198707]
Mr. Pond: The information is not available in the format requested; the available information is in the table.
Notes:
1. Sure Start Maternity Grants were introduced on 27 March 2000.
2. Data is not available by Parliamentary Constituency, but only by District.
3. Newcastle-under-Lyme Parliamentary Constituency used to be part of Staffordshire Social Fund District and is now part of Staffordshire Jobcentre Plus District. The latter was formed in November 2002 from Staffordshire Social Fund District and part of Derwent and Trent Social Fund District. The table above therefore refers to different areas, so the data is not comparable.
4. Data is given for all awards, irrespective of whether the award was made to the mother or her partner.
Source:
DWP Social Fund Policy, Budget and Management Information System.
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Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have received the (a) carers' allowance and (b) invalids allowance in Newcastle-under-Lyme since 1997. [198705]
Maria Eagle: Such information as is available is in the table. Carer's Allowance was called Invalid Care Allowance until April 2003.
Recipients of Carer's Allowance in Newcastle-under-Lyme parliamentary constituency.
| Date | Numbers |
|---|---|
| September 2001 | 725 |
| September 2002 | 755 |
| August 2003 | 905 |
| May 2004 | 1,040 |
Source:
IAD Information Centre 100 per cent. count.
Figures are rounded to the nearest 5.
There is no Parliamentary constituency data prior to September 2001.
Benefit Payments
Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will reform rules for housing and council tax benefit to exclude receipts of pension credit in the calculation of entitlement to these benefits; and what estimate he has made of the cost of such reform. [198710]
Mr. Pond: We have no current plans to reform rules for housing and council tax benefit to exclude receipts of pension credit in the calculation of entitlement to these benefits.
For people who are in receipt of the guarantee element, or both the guarantee and savings credit elements of pension credit, all of their income and capital is disregarded when their entitlement to housing benefit and council tax benefit is calculated. This includes pension credit itself.
For those in receipt of the savings credit element only, this is taken into account as income when entitlement to housing benefit and council tax benefit is calculated. However in October 2003, when pension credit was introduced, we raised the applicable amounts in both housing benefit and council tax benefit to reflect the maximum savings credit a person could get, irrespective of whether or not they are actually in receipt of the savings credit. This ensures that people do not see the extra money they get completely clawed back when housing benefit and council tax benefit are readjusted following the award of the savings credit.
To disregard the savings credit element from housing benefit and council tax benefit would cost £90 million a year.
Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in each ward of the Rhondda claim (a) disability living allowance and (b) winter fuel payments. [198301]
Maria Eagle:
The number of people in each ward in Rhondda who received Disability Living Allowance and Winter Fuel Payments is in the table.
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Notes :
1. All benefit counts have been rounded to a multiple of 5.
2. Disability Living Allowance data is the latest currently available, August 2003.
3. Winter Fuel Payment data is the latest currently available, winter 2003–04.
4. Disability Living Allowance can be claimed by any person regardless of age, provided they became disabled and claim before their 65th birthday. Therefore this figure will include children.
Source:
IAD Information Centre
Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what targets have been set for his Department for the number and percentage of benefit claimants who will transfer to direct payment of benefits; and if he will make a statement; [193139]
(2) if he will place in the Library copies of (a) administrative and (b) operational (i) instructions and (ii) targets issued to his Department's staff regarding the transfer of benefit claims to direct payments. [193140]
Mr. Pond [holding answer 21 October 2004]: With regard to the conversion of customers to Direct Payment the Department has a published Public Service Agreement target that by 2005, 85 per cent. of customers will have their benefits paid by Direct Payment.
The conversion process itself from order books and girocheques to payments directly into an account, started in April 2003 and involves contacting approximately 14 million customers.
To achieve the target customers 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.
Independent research commissioned by DWP shows that 82 per cent. of customers found the process of opening an account to be easy and 93 per cent. were happy once they had transferred to Direct Payment.
Key figures on the progress of conversion to Direct Payment are available in the Library and these are updated every four weeks. In addition a Direct Payment Customer Call Centre script and operational guidance is already available in Library.
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