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North Durham

Mr. Kevan Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people have benefited from the minimum wage in North Durham since its inception. [214678]

Mr. Timms: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
 
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Letter from Colin Mowl to Mr. Kevan Jones, dated 8 February 2005:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many people have benefited from the minimum wage in North Durham since its inception. Iam replying on his behalf. (214678)

Estimates for the number of jobs paid below the minimum wage for Parliamentary Constituencies are not available. However, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) calculates estimates of the number of jobs paid less than national minimum wage rates for theUnited Kingdom and Government Office Regions. A guide to measuring low pay and associated articles and data can be found on the National Statistics website at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=5837&Pos=1&ColRank=1&Rank=272

Mr. Kevan Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many children in North Durham will benefit from new child trust fund. [214682]

Mr. Timms: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given to my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Martin Linton) on 30 November 2004, Official Report, columns 87–88W. All children born and living in the UK since 1 September 2002 whose families receive child benefit will be eligible for the child trust fund.

Pensioner Concessions

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will provide the necessary funding to the relevant Government Department to permit the provision of (a) free television licences and (b) free off peak travel to all pensioners; and if he will estimate the cost of making each such provision in each of the next three years. [214002]

Mr. Timms: The Chancellor announced the introduction of free TV licences for those over 75 in his 2000 pre-Budget report and these have been available since November 2000. 3.4 million pensioner households benefit.

The Transport Act 2000 brought in the statutory minimum requirement for local authority concessionary fares to ensure that older and disabled people are entitled to half fares or better on their local bus services, with no additional charge being levied for the pass. Anything provided above the statutory minimum is a matter for local authorities.

There are no current plans to extend these measures and no detailed estimates have been made of the likely costs.

Public Sector Staff

Mr. Soames: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate the Government have made of the number of people who work in the public sector. [214012]

Mr. Timms: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Nicholas Soames, dated 8 February 2005:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the number of people who work in the public sector. (214012)

 
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The most recent public sector figures published by the Office for National Statistics on the basis of National Accounts definitions were published in the article 'Jobs in the public sector: mid -2003' in the July 2004 issue of 'Labour Market Trends'.

Drawing upon this source, the estimated number of UK jobs in the public sector in June 2003 was 5,454,000 jobs.

Stamp Duty

Mr. Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will assess the (a) total costs and (b) total benefits to date of the modernisation of stamp duty; and whether those costs and benefits are in line with the estimates made in the regulatory impact assessment published in March 2004. [214725]

Dawn Primarolo: The latest estimate of the actual cost of MSD, in 2003–04, is £26.3 million, including pre- and post-implementation IT costs and the various business change costs. This is in line with the costs of £25 million to £30 million estimated in the Regulatory Impact Assessment.

We currently estimate that yield achieved in 2004–05 was £225 million higher than 2003–04 as a result of the modernisation of stamp duty. This is consistent with the £210 million increase in yield between 2003–04 and 2004–05 forecast as a result of the measures, as shown in Table A2.1 of the Financial Statement and Budget Report 2003.

Tax Credits

Mr. Chapman: To ask the Chancellor of what proportion of those in receipt of tax credits in (a) Wirral South and (b) the UK have been subject to overpayment demands. [214009]

Dawn Primarolo: Details of how overpayments are recovered are provided in the Inland Revenue's Code of Practice 26 What happens if we have paid you too much tax credit." Wherever practical overpayments are recovered out of future tax credit payments. Where an award of tax credits has ceased and there remains an overpayment to be recovered, the Inland Revenue issues claimants with a 'Notice to Pay'. The claimant has the option to choose to pay back an overpayment over 12months.

Information on the number of households in Wirral South sent notices to pay is not available.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his latest estimate is of the number of cases of official error in the payment of tax credits in (a) 2003–04 and (b) 2004–05; how many of these cases are still awaiting repayment of monies due from the Inland Revenue; and if he will make a statement. [213892]

Dawn Primarolo: By end December 2004 about 78,000 households had returned Form TC846, or had otherwise been recorded as requesting the write-off of their overpayments on grounds of official error. About 41,000 requests had been decided by that date, and about 1,600 families had their overpayments written off for that reason. That left 37,000 cases yet to be decided. Whether these remaining cases have their overpayment written off on the grounds of official error will depend upon the circumstances of each individual case.
 
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Details of when an overpayment may be written off can be found Code of Practice 26 'What happens if we have paid you too much tax credit?'

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his latest estimate is of the Inland Revenue's percentage accuracy rate for processing and calculating tax credit awards for 2003–04; and if he will make a statement. [213962]

Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave my hon. Friend the Member for High Peak (Tom Levitt), on 26 January 2005, Official Report, column 407W.

The Department expects the level of processing accuracy in the current year to be markedly better than last year, in line with its target to decide 90 per cent. of tax credit claims, changes and renewals accurately. It will publish its performance against the current year's target in its Annual Report in due course.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his estimate is of the cost of managing and payingall tax credits in (a) 2001–02, (b) 2002–03, (c) 2003–04 and (d) 2004–05; and if he will make a statement. [213965]

Dawn Primarolo: For the cost of managing and paying working families' and disabled person's tax credits in (a) 2001–02 and (b) 2002–03 I refer the hon. Member to page 101 of the Inland Revenue Annual Report for the year ending 31 March 2003. This can be found on the Inland Revenue web site, at www.ir.gov.uk/pdfs/report2003.pdf.

For the cost of managing and paying working and child tax credits in (c) 2003–04 I refer the hon. Member to page 104 of the Inland Revenue Annual Report and Accounts for that year. This can be found on the Inland Revenue web site, at www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/pdfs/report2004.pdf.

The actual cost for (d) 2004–05 will appear in the Annual Report for that year.

Mr. Cummings: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people received (a) working family tax credits and (b) child tax credits in Easington constituency; and if he will make a statement. [214456]

Dawn Primarolo: Estimates of the number of in-work families receiving tax credits (broken down by families with and without children) in each constituency appear in Child and Working Tax Credit Statistics. Geographical analyses, December 2004." This can be found on the Inland Revenue website at www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/menu.htm. The estimates are based on a sample of cases, and are subject to sampling uncertainty.

Helen Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in Warrington, North are claiming tax credits; and what the average award for each creditis. [214963]

Dawn Primarolo: Estimates of the number of in-work families receiving tax credits (broken down by families with and without children) in each constituency appear in Child and Working Tax Credit Statistics. Geographical analyses." This can be found on the Inland Revenue website at www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/
 
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stats/personal-tax-credits/menu.htm. The estimates are based on a sample of cases, and are subject to sampling uncertainty.

Information on the average value of awards is not available.

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