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18 Nov 2004 : Column 1864W—continued
Benefit Overpayment (Recovery)
Mr. Willetts:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many past overpayments of benefits have been recovered by his Department's debt
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management office in each year since 1997; and if he will place in the Library a copy of the letter being sent to people with repayments of overpaid benefit outstanding. [194846]
Mr. Pond: The available information is in the table. A draft copy of the letter sent to people with repayments of overpaid benefit outstanding, has been placed in the Library.
Notes:
1. This type of data was not captured prior to 2000.
2. A recovery of an overpayment can commence in a previous year before the overpayment was marked as fully recovered in the relevant financial year.
Source:
Management Information returns.
Benefit Payments
Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what protection is provided to families receiving income support who will be worse off after the migration to child tax credit and who cannot apply for a local authority discretionary housing payment because they do not qualify for council tax or housing benefit; [193949]
(2) what protection is provided to families receiving income support who will be worse off after the migration to child tax credit and who are refused discretionary housing payment by their local authority; [193950]
(3) what help is proposed for families receiving income support who will be worse off after the migration to child tax credit and who are awarded a discretionary housing payment for a fixed period and are then refused further payment; [193951]
(4) whether transitional protection will be put in place to protect from a sudden drop in income families receiving income support who will be worse off after the migration to child tax credit. [193952]
Mr. Pond
[holding answer 26 October 2004]: The Department has no plans to put a transitional protection scheme into place for this group of families at this time. Our latest estimate is that with 900,000 families remaining to be transferred to child tax credit, fewer than 200 will see a net reduction in their overall income as a result of the interaction with council tax benefit, mostly by no more than a few pence per week. In contrast, more than 75 per cent. of families who move off benefit as a result of claiming CTC will gain by £20 a week or more. Nevertheless, we have issued a reminder to local authorities of their powers to consider an award of a discretionary housing payment to affected families where appropriate. Discretionary housing payments are designed for circumstances where there is a shortfall between HB/CTB entitlement and liability.
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Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have received the (a) carer's allowance and (b) invalidity allowance since 1997. [198643]
Maria Eagle: The available information is in the table. Until April 2003, carer's allowance was known as invalid care allowance.
| Number | |
|---|---|
| 1997 | 367,445 |
| 1998 | 373,105 |
| 1999 | 373,515 |
| 2000(13) | 384,860 |
| 2001(14) | 419,785 |
| 2002 | 390,485 |
| 2003 | 408,115 |
| 2004 | 425,455 |
(13) Figures for 2003 and 2004 are as at 31 May. For all other years as at 30 June.
(14) Due to the introduction of a new CA computer system in November 1999, some estimation was necessary. The figure for 2000 was estimated based on trends in earlier years. For 2001, numbers "in payment" were not available and for that year only, the number "entitled" was used.
Source:
100 per cent. count.
Caravan Parks
Mark Tami: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many children (a) died and (b) suffered injury as a result of accidents at holiday caravan parks in each of the last five years. [196854]
Jane Kennedy: There have been no fatal injuries to children reported to HSE or local authorities in holiday caravan parks during the period 1998–99 to 2004 1 .
The reported non-fatal injuries to children are shown in the two age bands in the following table.
| Age band | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1–15 | 16–19 | |
| 1998–99 | 11 | 1 |
| 1999–2000 | 26 | — |
| 2000–01 | 14 | 1 |
| 2001–02 (16) | 47 | 3 |
| 2002–03 | 48 | 3 |
(15) Provisional
(16) From 2001–02 the reported accident data was collected using revised coding arrangements. In the same year reporting was made easier through the setting up of the HSE Incident Contact Centre (ICC) which encouraged more telephoned reports. HSE do not interpret the increase in the figures as a growing accident trend, but welcome the easier collection of data.
Note:
The annual basis is the planning year from 1 April to 31 March
Carer's Allowance/Premium
Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many claimants were receiving the carer's premium in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and (b) the UK on the latest date for which figures are available. [198742]
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Maria Eagle: The available information is in the table.
| Number | |
|---|---|
| Newcastle-under-Lyme | 300 |
| Great Britain | 290,000 |
Notes:
1. Newcastle-under-Lyme figures are from the 5 per cent. income support and jobseeker's allowance samples rounded to the nearest hundred.
2. Great Britain figures are from the income support and jobseeker's allowance 5 per cent. sample combined with housing benefit and council tax benefit 1 per cent. sample, rounded to the nearest 10,000 with overlapping benefits removed.
3. As the figures are based on 5 per cent. samples they are subject to a degree of sampling variation.
4. The data refer to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple.
5. The administration of benefits in Northern Ireland is a matter for the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
Source:
Department for Work and Pensions
Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what plans he has to develop the carer's allowance; [198713]
(2) what estimate he has made of the costs of increasing the carer's allowance to the level of the minimum wage per hour spent caring; [198714]
(3) how many pensioners entitled to the carer's allowance have benefited from the abolition of the upper age limit. [198716]
Maria Eagle: Following the report of the National Strategy for Carers we have already made substantial improvements to carer's allowance, and to the extra money available to carers on a low income through the carer premium in the income related benefits and the carer's additional amount in pension credit. These improvements include the removal of the upper age limit on claims to the allowance, and substantial increases in the amount recipients can earn from part-time work, as well as in the extra money available to carers in the income related benefits and pension credit. We have no plans for further change beyond our commitment to increase carer's allowance each year in line with RPI.
Carer's allowance (CA) is not a carers' wage, and we have made no estimate of the cost of increasing it in line with the national Minimum Wage.
The latest available figures show that at 31 May 2004 some 23,500 pension age carers, including around 9,500 aged 65 and over, were receiving carers allowance. About 114,500 carers aged 60 or over, including over 83,000 aged 65 or over were getting the carer's additional amount in pension credit.
Child Poverty
Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many children (a) are defined as living below the poverty line and (b) have moved above the poverty line in each year in (i) Newcastle-under-Lyme and (ii) England since 1997. [198706]
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Mr. Pond: Poverty is about more than low income, it also impacts on the way people live—their health, housing and the quality of their environment. The sixth annual 'Opportunity for all' report (Cm 6239) sets out the Government's strategy for tackling poverty and social exclusion and presents information on the indicators used to measure progress against this strategy. In December 2003, we published 'Measuring child poverty' which outlines the Government's new measure of child poverty which will be used from 2004–05. Both of these documents are available in the Library.
There is not a measure which sets out the numbers of children in poverty for the years since 1997 and we do not produce yearly estimates of the number of children leaving low income. However, data on the number of children living in low income households is available. The threshold of below 60 per cent. contemporary median income is the most commonly used in reporting absolute and relative trends in low income.
The number of children in England below 60 per cent. contemporary median income from 1997–98 is in the table. Figures are not available below Government Office Region level. Specific information regarding low income at Government Office Region level is available in 'Households Below Average Income 1994/95– 2002/03', which is available in the Library.
Note:
Figures are rounded to the nearest 100,000.
Source:
Households Below Average Income.
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