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6 Dec 2004 : Column 367W—continued
WORK AND PENSIONS
Benefit Call Centres
Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) whether benefits claimants who attend at Jobcentre Plus offices must claim benefits by telephoning a call centre elsewhere; [202673]
(2) whether benefits call centre staff are able to make decisions about eligibility for benefit. [202674]
Jane Kennedy: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Chief Executive, David Anderson. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from David Anderson to Vera Baird, dated 6 December 2004:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions concerning whether benefits claimants who attend at Jobcentre Plus offices must claim benefits by telephoning a Call Centre elsewhere, and whether benefit Call Centre staff are able to make decisions about eligibility for benefit. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
We are establishing a number of contact centres that allow customers the flexibility of using many of the services Jobcentre Plus provides without the need to travel to local offices. In areas where this new process has already commenced, customers are asked to telephone the relevant Contact Centre to make their initial claim to benefit. If a customer has already travelled to the Jobcentre Plus office, they can use a 'warm phone' in that office to make the call. In exceptional circumstances, customers may have a face-to-face interview.
Contact Centre officers do not make decisions regarding eligibility to benefits. They collect information for benefits to which customers have potential eligibility. This information is forwarded to Decision Makers for decisions on entitlement to benefits.
Benefit Fraud
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many local authority benefit fraud investigators have (a) commenced and (b) completed the Professionalism in Security Accredited Counter Fraud Officer Scheme. [200116]
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Mr. Pond: Up until April 2004, 283 local authority benefit fraud investigators had commenced but not completed the Professionalism in Security (PINS) training scheme and 1,826 had completed it.
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many local authority benefit fraud investigators there were in each year since 1997. [200164]
Mr. Pond: The overall aim of the Department's anti-fraud strategy is to have a benefit system which is secure from first claim to final payment. The implementation of this strategy means than an anti-fraud focus is integral to the work of all staff working in the administration of housing benefit, as is dealing with the wider agenda of error and incorrectness in benefit payments.
The number of full-time equivalent fraud investigators is in the table.
Notes:
1. The figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred.
2. Figures for any non-responding authorities have been estimated.
Source:
Housing Benefit Management Information System Quarterly Administration Returns April 1996 to March 2004.
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on how many occasions the new powers to obtain information from third party organisations established under the Social Security (Fraud) Act 2001 have been used. [200165]
Mr. Pond: The Social Security Fraud Act 2001 introduced powers that required the private sector, and some public sector bodies, to give authorised DWP and local authority officers information on their customers where it relates to suspicions of fraud against the benefit system.
From April 2003 until September 2004 there have been 36,181 occasions when we have asked third party organisations to provide information using powers granted by the Act. Figures are not available before then, as information was not collated centrally.
Bereavement Benefit
Mr. Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much has been paid in bereavement benefit in each of the last 10 years. [201716]
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Mr. Pond: The information is in the table.
| £ million | |
|---|---|
| 1993–94 | 1,145 |
| 1994–95 | 1,111 |
| 1995–96 | 1,070 |
| 1996–97 | 1,009 |
| 1997–98 | 1,005 |
| 1998–99 | 968 |
| 1999–2000 | 984 |
| 2000–01 | 965 |
| 2001–02 | 1,065 |
| 2002–03 | 984 |
Notes:
1. Figures are in real terms 2004–05 prices.
2. Bereavement benefits replaced Widows benefits on 9 April 2001.
Source:
DWP Benefit Expenditure Tables.
Departmental Mobile Phones
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many departmental mobile telephones were used by Ministers, special advisers and officials in his Department in each year since 1997; at what cost; how many such telephones were lost or stolen in each year since 1997; and what the replacement costs were in each case. [202156]
Maria Eagle: Information is not available in the format requested.
Central records of mobile phones were not held until 1 November 2003. At that date, nine were used by Ministers and special advisers, and 11,950 were used by the Department's officials.
As of November 2004, eight mobile phones were used by Ministers and Special Advisers, and 13,786 used by officials.
Information on costs, which includes the cost of new phones, contract costs and call charges is available only for the last two quarters. These costs amounted to £409,017 for quarter ending August 2004, and £405,258 for quarter ending November 2004.
Information on the number and associated costs of mobile phones lost or stolen is not collected.
Disability Benefits
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many people have claimed disability living allowance, broken down (a) by nation and (b) by region, in each year since 2001; and if he will make a statement; [200234]
(2) what estimate he has made of the number of people who are eligible for disability living allowance. [200235]
Maria Eagle:
Entitlement to disability living allowance (DLA) can only be reliably established after a claim has been made and the care and mobility needs of the individual customer fully assessed. For this reason it is not possible to estimate the number of people who
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may be entitled. The requested information about DLA claims is not available. The available information is set out in the table.
| Number | |
|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 407,810 |
| 2002–03 | 433,345 |
| 2003–04 | 442,150 |
Note:
1. Figures taken from a 100 per cent. sample at 31 May 2004 each year and rounded to the nearest five.
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people appealed against decisions made regarding the award of (a) incapacity benefit, (b) severe disablement allowance and (c) disability living allowance in each quarter in each year since 2001; how many of these appeals were successful; and if he will make a statement. [200246]
Maria Eagle: This is a matter for Christina Townsend, Chief Executive of the Appeals Service. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Christina Townsend to Mr. Paul Holmes, dated 6 December 2004:
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has asked me to reply to your question regarding how many people appealed against decisions made regarding the award of (a) incapacity benefit, (b) severe disablement allowance and (c) disability living allowance; how many of these appeals were successful, in each quarter in each year since 2001.
The information in table 1 give details of claims for incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance and disability living allowance. Table 2 shows the number of successful appeals made against the rejection of severe disablement allowance and disability living allowance, whilst table 3 shows the figures relating to incapacity benefit.
Benefit Data Notes:
1. Benefit caseload figures are taken from a 5 per cent. sample 30 November of each year; they are not caseloads for quarters as Appeals.
2. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred and are represented in thousands.
3. Incapacity benefit and severe disablement benefit figures include "credits only" cases.
Source:
IAD Information Centre, 5 per cent. sample.
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Appeals Data Notes:
1. All figures are subject to change as more up to date data becomes available.
2. Figures for the latest months may rise significantly as information feeds through to the Appeals Service.
3. Figures are rounded to the nearest five.
4. Figures may not sum due to rounding.
5. Percentages are to one decimal place and are based on unrounded figures.
Source:
IAD Information Centre, 100 per cent. sample
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost was of administering the appeals system for (a) incapacity benefit, (b) severe disablement allowance and (c) disability living allowance in each quarter in each year since 2001; and if he will make a statement. [200247]
Angela Eagle: This is a matter for Christina Townsend, Chief Executive of the Appeals Service. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Christina Townsend to Mr. Paul Holmes, dated 6 December 2004:
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has asked me to respond to your question asking what the cost was of
- administering the appeals system for (a) incapacity benefit (b) severe disablement allowance and (c) disability living allowance in each quarter in each year since 2001.
The table below shows the estimated cost for administering incapacity benefit, severe disablement benefit and disability living allowance appeals. We do not hold exact figures for each benefit type, so the amounts quoted are calculated on average administrative and judicial costs, including overheads.
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