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7 Feb 2005 : Column 1353W—continued
Non-geographic Telephone Numbers
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the use of non-geographic 0870 and 0845 telephone numbers by his Department and its agencies. [214052]
Maria Eagle: The Whistleblowers Hotline is a confidential service available to Department for Work and Pensions staff and is the only 0870 number in use.
Non-geographic 0870 numbers are not used by customers to contact the Department or its Agencies.
All Department for Work and Pensions contact centres for customers operate on 0845 (local rate) or 0800 (free) phone numbers.
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much revenue his Department and its agencies received from the use of (a) 0870 and (b) 0845 telephone numbers in the last year for which figures are available. [214053]
Maria Eagle: The Department for Work and Pensions and its agencies do not receive any revenue for the use of 0845 numbers.
For information regarding 0870 numbers I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Mr. Tyler) on 17 January 2005, Official Report, column 780W.
Pensions
Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his latest estimate is of the annual cost of administering (a) the pension credit and (b) the basic state pension; and what the administration costs are as a proportion of the total benefits paid out under (i) pension credit and (ii) basic state pension. [211372]
Malcolm Wicks: Information is not currently available in the format requested. In accordance with the requirements of resource accounting and budgeting, the Department now accounts for its administration and benefit expenditure by strategic objective, as set out in its Public Service Agreements (PSA), and by individual requests for resources (RfRs), as set out in the departmental estimates and accounts.
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps pensioners need to take to continue to receive their pension payments over the counter at post offices; and if he will make a statement. [214810]
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Mr. Pond: Pensioners who are contacted about the move to Direct Payment are provided with information on all the account options open to them, including those accounts which can be accessed at post offices. There are now a wide range of new, easy to operate accounts such as current accounts and basic bank accounts, in addition to the Post Office card account, which allow pensioners to get their money at a post office. The small number of people who cannot be paid directly into an account will be paid by cheque, which is cashable at post offices.
Mr. Fisher: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) Stoke-on-Trent and (b) England have indicated that they wish to continue to collect their pensions at post offices. [211711]
Mr. Pond: The information is not available in the form requested. Information on methods of payment of state pension is given in the following table. Some of those customers who have opted to be paid directly into a bank or building society account will be able to collect cash from their account at a post office. It is not possible to identify these separately.
Notes:
1.Figures are rounded to the nearest five and might not sum due to rounding.
2.Figures are taken from the latest available data at 27 November 2004
3.Figures relate to accounts rather than recipients; if a person is receiving their state pension through a different benefit they will not be included in the above figures.
Source:
IAD Information Centre, Department for Work and Pensions, 100 per cent. sample
Mr. Fisher: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people of pensionable age in Stoke-on-Trent do not receive (a) the full basic state pension and (b) part of the basic state pension as a result of their contribution records. [212299]
Malcolm Wicks: The information is not available in the format requested. However, such information as is available for the local authority area of Stoke on-Trent is in the table:
| Number | |
|---|---|
| People of state pension age in receipt of: | |
| A basic state pension at less than the full rate | 13,200 |
| A state pension but no basic state pension | 300 |
Notes:
1.Figures are taken from a 5 per cent. sample and are therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation. The figure for the number of people in receipt of a state pension but no basic state pension should only be taken as indicative.
2.Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred.
3.A basic state pension is paid to those who fully or partially satisfy the contribution conditions for a category A or category B pension.
4.Full rate means £77.45 for a basic state pension in 2003–04.
5.People shown as in receipt of a state pension but no basic state pension are in receipt of a category D pension or either or both graduated retirement benefit and additional state pension.
6.Local authorities are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant Office for National Statistics postcode directory.
Source:
IAD Information Centre, 5 per cent. sample as at 31 March 2004
7 Feb 2005 : Column 1355W
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many individuals were in receipt of (a) basic state pension and (b) over-80s pension in Southend-on-Sea in (i) 1980, (ii) 1990, (iii) 2000 and (iv)2004. [213202]
Malcolm Wicks: The information is not available in the format requested. However, such information as is available is in the table:
| Number of individuals receiving: | ||
|---|---|---|
| March | Basic state pension | Category D pension |
| 2000 | 33,300 | 100 |
| 2004 | 33,200 | 100 |
Notes:
1.Figures are taken from a 5 per cent. sample and are therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation. Figures for category D pensions should only be taken as indicative.
2.Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred.
3.A basic state pension is paid to those who fully or partially satisfy the contribution conditions for a category A or category B pension.
4.Figures for recipients of basic state pension exclude those receiving category C or category D pension only, additional state pension only or graduated retirement benefit only.
5.Figures for category D pensions include those who get a category D pension alone or in addition to a basic State Pension that is lower than the level of the Category D Pension—£46.35 in 2003–04.
6.Local authorities are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant Office for National Statistics postcode directory.
7.Local authority data are not available prior to March 2000.
Source:
IAD Information Centre, 5 per cent. sample as at 31 March for the years shown.
Mr. Dhanda: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) if he will make a statement on state pension entitlement of British citizens who move abroad; [213212]
(2) if he will make it his policy to ensure the equal treatment of all British pensioners resident abroad in relation to updating of state retirement pensions. [213326]
Malcolm Wicks: The UK state pension is payable in all countries abroad to those who are entitled to it. It is uprated in the normal way for pensioners living abroad where there is a legal requirement or a reciprocal social security agreement to do so.
However, the uprating of state pensions outside this arrangement is the subject of an appeal to the House of Lords from a decision of the Court of Appeal which found in favour of the Government. We will respond accordingly at the hearing which is set for 28 February and 1 March this year.
Mr. Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many reports of computer failure his Department has received since the introduction of pension and benefit payment through the Post Office card account. [205460]
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Mr. Pond [holding answer 20 December 2004]: Computer faults are reported on a daily basis, examples include faults with individual PC's, system problems affecting individual claims and, on occasion, the unavailability of computer systems such as income support.
If it can be defined to what level the information is required and in particular which systems e.g. pensions, income support that the information is required for, then data held since introduction of the payment through Post Office card account (April 2003) may be trawled to identify specific incidents.
What we can provide at present is information relating to any payments which have been received late by the customer due to IT problems. Details, as follows:
The total value of late payments is £32,415,625.00. The total value of all payments since April 2003 is approximately £180,148,321,883.00. Therefore, the proportion of payments received late by customers is 0.02 per cent.
However, none of the late payment incidents were as a result of system unavailability. The problem occurred due to coding within the systems themselves.
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