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24 Jan 2005 : Column 59W—continued
New Deal
Mr. Ivan Henderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have benefited from the New Deal in the Harwich constituency since 1997. [210682]
Jane Kennedy:
The New Deal has been very successful in helping more than 1.2 million people into work including 1,800 in the Harwich constituency.
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Information on the number of people who have participated in and the number helped into work by each New Deal programme in Harwich is in the table.
(7) All data are to September 2004, except for New Deal 50 plus which is to March 2003.
(8) Figures for New Deal 50 plus relate to starts to the Employment Credit element of the programme. No information is currently available on the number of individual starts to New Deal 50 plus.
Notes:
1. New Deal for Disabled People and New Deal for Partners is not available at parliamentary constituency level.
2. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 and therefore components may not necessarily sum to totals.
Source:
New Deal Evaluation Database, DWP Information and Analysis Directorate.
Poor Pensioners
Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what percentage of (a) single female pensioners, (b) single male pensioners and (c) pensioner couples are living in poverty. [210349]
Malcolm Wicks: Poverty is about more than low income; is also about other important factors in their lives—their health, housing and the quality of their environment. The sixth annual "Opportunity for all" report (Cm 6239), published in September 2004, 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.
Specific information regarding low income for the United Kingdom is available in "Households Below Average Income 1994–95 to 2002–03".
Information about low income among pensioners in Great Britain in 2002–03 is in the table.
Further Information about low income is available in "Households Below Average Income 1994–95 to 2002–03", a copy of which is available in the Library.
Vera Baird:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the percentage of (a) single female pensioners, (b) single
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male pensioners and (c) pensioner couples who would be in poverty if the basic state pension was paid at its current level to all pensioners. [210376]
Malcolm Wicks: Information in the format requested is unavailable.
Estimates of the number of pensioners with low income under a different policy, such as that described in the question, are subject to a high degree of uncertainty. However, using the Department's Policy Simulation Model for 2004–05 it has been estimated that the effect of paying the maximum rate of basic state pension to all pensioners is a reduction in the order of five percentage points of the proportion of pensioner couples with incomes below 60 per cent. of median income, on both the "before housing costs" and on the "after housing costs" measures. The proportion of single female pensioners and single male pensioners on low income is estimated to remain broadly unchanged as a result of paying the full amount of basic state pension to all pensioners.
Post Office Card Account
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what investigations he has made into the reliability and efficiency of the Post Office Card Account's computer system; and if he will make a statement. [209951]
Mr. Pond: A contract exists between Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Post Office Ltd. (POL) for the provision of the Post Office card account service to agreed service standards. Since April 2003 DWP has successfully made over 67 million payments to Post Office card accounts and as at December 2004 over 4 million card accounts have been opened. Throughout the period DWP has been liaising with POL, monitoring the performance of the service against service standards on an on-going basis.
Since April 2003 there have been a small number of service incidents that have briefly affected payment to DWP customers. On these occasions there has been close contact with POL to understand the problem, to ensure action was being taken in line with comprehensive continuity arrangements included in the contract to restore the service quickly, and to ensure that remedial action has been taken and any lessons learned acted upon.
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have been unable to collect their pensions due to breakdowns of the Post Office card account computer system since its introduction; and if he will make a statement. [209952]
Mr. Pond:
The Information is not available in the form requested. Since April 2003, when the Post Office card account system was introduced, there have been a small number of incidents that have briefly affected payments to the Department's customers. These incidents have caused some inconvenience to customers and delay in withdrawing benefit from accounts. It is not possible to say how many customers were temporarily unable to collect their pensions at the Post Office as a result.
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Social Fund
Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what targets have been set for processing new social fund claims in each year since 2001. [210100]
Mr. Pond: Jobcentre Plus has a number of Key Management Indicators (KMI) with which it measures performance, including that of the Social Fund.
The Social Fund KMI up to April 2004 related to the actual average clearance time (AACT) for Community Care Grants, this was set at nine days.
From April 2004 the Social Fund KMI included additional elements as follows.
Prior to April 2004 there were no nationally set KMIs for elements for the Social Fund other than Community Care Grants, however, many districts monitored performance at a local level.
Youth Unemployment
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the most recent figures issued by Eurostat are for youth unemployment in each EU member state. [206387]
Mr. Pond: The annual unemployment, employment and activity rates for populations aged 15–24 most recently released by Eurostat are in the table.
Notes:
1. Figures are for 2003 except for * which are 2002.
2. The figures are published in Employment in Europe 2004 at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/news/2004/sep/eie2004_en.html
3. The UK has a youth (15–24) activity rate of 63.3 per cent., a youth employment rate of 55.5 per cent. and a youth unemployment rate of 12.3 per cent.
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