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WORK AND PENSIONS

Benefit Recipients (High Peak)

Tom Levitt: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in the High Peak constituency are receiving (a) jobseeker's allowance, (b) incapacity benefit and (c) income support; and how many were receiving each in 1997. [210794]

Mr. Pond: The information is in the table.
Number of people receiving income support (IS), incapacity benefit (IB) jobseeker's allowance (JSA) in High Peak in August 1997 and August 2004

	1997	2004
IS	4,100	2,200
JSA	1,595	835
IB	3,200	3,400

Notes:
1. IS and IB figures are rounded to the nearest hundred. Totals may not sum due to rounding. JSA figures are not rounded.
2. IS and IB Figures are based on a 5 per cent. sample and therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation. JSA figures are based on a 100 per cent. sample.
3. From November 2003 IS figures are severely affected by the introduction of pension credit, which replaced MIG on 6 October 2003 and extended income support entitlement to customers aged 60+. Pension credit cases are not included in the figures in the table.
4. IB figures include all IB and SDA (including IB credits only cases).
Source:
1. IS and IB figures are from DWP information centre.
2. JSA figures are from a count of unemployment-related benefits, Jobcentre Plus computer systems (including clerically held cases).

Credit Union Accounts

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) whether benefit recipients may receive their benefits directly into a credit union account; and what
 
9 Feb 2005 : Column 1559W
 
agreement has been made with the Association of British Credit Unions concerning the necessary arrangements; [214602]

(2) what plans he has to enable recipients of pensions to use credit unions as the mechanism for direct payments of pensions; and what arrangements he has entered into with the Association of British Credit Unions on the arrangements for doing so. [214622]

Mr. Pond: Benefit recipients may, at their request, have benefits paid into a Credit Union account. This is a change of approach by the Department, which until recently advised benefit recipients against payment of benefits direct into any Credit Union. The change reflects discussion with the Association of British Credit Unions that in some situations such payments will now meet the needs of benefit recipients.

The agreement covers all Credit Unions in England, Scotland and Wales reflecting that all such unions are regulated by the Financial Services Authority and can hold money on behalf of others.

Benefit recipients who request payment into a Credit Union account are normally asked to contact their individual Credit Union to discuss access arrangements before they finally decide if payment into a Credit Union is the appropriate account option for them.

Not all Credit Unions will accept payments of benefits, because they do not have the ability to link funds paid into their central account quickly to individual accounts. Some are only open one or two days a week and are unable to provide the customer with access to their benefit on the day of entitlement.

Disability Discrimination Act

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what timetable he has set to extend the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to cover general qualifications. [214620]

Maria Eagle: The Government's indicative timetable for implementing provisions in the Disability Discrimination Bill was set out in their response to the Report of the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Committee on the Draft Disability Discrimination Bill (Cm 6276). Since that document was published the Bill, which is currently before the House of Lords, has been revised to take account of the pre-legislative scrutiny process. In line with our timetable for implementing the Bill's provisions that would generally require the support of a Code of Practice, the intention is that the extension of the DDA to cover qualifications bodies offering general qualifications, which is a provision added since scrutiny, would come into force in December 2006.

Disability/Sickness Allowances

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the size range of the proposed (a) rehabilitation support allowance and (b) disability and sickness allowance are expected to be. [215055]

Maria Eagle: No specific size range has been set. However, people on the rehabilitation support allowance who participate in work-focused interviews and take steps to prepare for a return to work will
 
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receive a level of benefit higher than the current long-term rate of contributory incapacity benefit. People on the disability and sickness allowance will also receive a level of benefit higher than the current long-term rate but this will not be dependent on them taking steps to prepare for a return to work.

Gershon Review

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many jobs he estimates will be lost on Merseyside as a result of the Gershon Review. [214597]

Maria Eagle: As part of the efficiency programme detailed business and staffing plans continue to be developed across the Department. At this stage it is therefore not possible to provide a figure for potential staff reductions that may occur across Merseyside.

In the first phase of planning and as part of the ongoing modernisation of service delivery it has been decided that the Liverpool Pension Centre will no longer deal with Pension Service work after this financial year. Plans for the future of the Pension Centre site and staff have yet to be finalised.

Housing Benefit

Mr. David Marshall: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people claimed housing benefit in each constituency in Scotland in the latest period for which figures are available. [215390]

Mr. Pond: The information is not available.

Mr. Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many directives his Department has issued to local authorities regarding the processing of housing benefit in each year since 1997; [215129]

(2) how his Department measures the impact of the directives it issues on the processing of housing benefit by local authorities. [215260]

Mr. Pond: Local authorities are obliged to administer housing benefit in accordance with the appropriate legislation. In order to assist them in this the Department provides them with a range of guidance material including the Housing Benefit Guidance Manual, which is updated regularly. We also issues circulars giving guidance on administration, subsidy and fraud. The number of such circulars issued in each year is shown in the table.
Number of housing benefit circulars issued by DWP

	Administrative	Fraud	Subsidy	Total
1997	58	21	5	84
1998	60	21	8	89
1999	54	19	8	81
2000	53	15	5	73
2001	53	25	8	86
2002	34	29	8	71
2003	40	29	11	80
2004	35	10	8	53
2005 (to date)	3	1	1	5

We monitor and measure local authority processing times through a range of Best Value Performance Indicators and statutory performance indicators. Local
 
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authorities provide quarterly statistical returns to the Department. These statistics show that new claims were processed, on average 12 days quicker in 2003–04 than in 2001–02. The second quarter of 2004–05 shows further improvements, with the average number of days to process new claims reducing from 50 days to 47 when compared to the same quarter of 2003–04.
 
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Incapacity Benefit

Mr. David Marshall: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people claimed incapacity benefit in each constituency in Scotland in the latest period for which figures are available. [215385]

Maria Eagle: The information is in the table.
All incapacity benefit (IB) and severe disability allowance (SDA) claimants in Scotland by parliamentaryconstituency, at 31 August 2004

	IB/SDA	IB	SDA
Aberdeen Central	4,600	4,100	*400
Aberdeen North	3,300	3,000	*300
Aberdeen South	3,200	2,900	*400
Airdrie and Shotts	7,200	6,500	700
Angus	3,500	2,900	500
Argyll and Bute	3,200	2,900	*400
Ayr	4,000	3,300	700
Banff and Buchan	4,600	3,900	700
Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross	2,600	2,200	*400
Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley	5,800	5,300	500
Central Fife	5,600	4,900	700
Clydebank and Milngavie	3,900	3,600	*300
Clydesdale	6,100	5,200	900
Coatbridge and Chryston	5,900	5,300	600
Cumbernauld and Kilsyth	4,600	4,100	500
Cunninghame North	4,000	3,600	500
Cunninghame South	5,300	4,800	500
Dumbarton	4,400	4,100	*300
Dumfries	3,600	3,100	500
Dundee East	5,300	4,500	800
Dundee West	5,100	4,300	700
Dunfermline East	4,800	4,300	500
Dunfermline West	3,300	2,900	*400
East Kilbride	4,000	3,700	*300
East Lothian	4,000	3,500	*500
Eastwood	3,600	3,200	*400
Edinburgh Central	3,900	3,300	600
Edinburgh East and Musselburgh	5,500	4,800	600
Edinburgh North and Leith	4,400	3,900	*400
Edinburgh Pentlands	3,300	2,900	*400
Edinburgh South	3,400	2,700	700
Edinburgh West	2,500	2,200	*400
Falkirk East	4,200	3,700	500
Falkirk West	4,600	4,100	600
Galloway and Upper Nithsdale	3,800	3,400	*400
Glasgow Anniesland	5,800	5,200	600
Glasgow Baillieston	7,500	6,900	500
Glasgow Cathcart	5,800	5,600	*300
Glasgow Govan	5,900	5,500	*400
Glasgow Kelvin	5,600	5,100	*400
Glasgow Maryhill	7,700	7,200	500
Glasgow Pollok	5,600	5,000	700
Glasgow Rutherglen	6,000	5,600	*400
Glasgow Shettleston	9,800	9,200	700
Glasgow Springburn	8,000	7,400	600
Gordon	2,400	2,100	*300
Greenock and Inverclyde	5,100	4,700	*400
Hamilton North and Bellshill	6,000	5,600	*400
Hamilton South	5,100	4,600	500
Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber	3,700	3,100	600
Kilmarnock and Loudoun	5,100	4,500	600
Kirkcaldy	3,900	3,400	500
Linlithgow	4,500	3,900	500
Livingston	4,800	4,300	500
Midlothian	3,300	3,000	*300
Moray	3,000	2,500	500
Motherwell and Wishaw	5,800	5,300	600
North East Fife	1,800	1,600	*200
North Tayside	2,600	2,200	500
Ochil	4,500	4,200	*300
Orkney and Shetland	1,500	1,000	*400
Paisley North	5,700	5,100	600
Paisley South	4,900	4,500	*400
Perth	3,800	3,300	500
Ross, Skye and Inverness West	3,900	3,500	*300
Roxburgh and Berwickshire	2,600	2,300	*300
Stirling	3,500	3,000	*400
Strathkelvin and Bearsden	3,400	2,900	500
Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale	2,500	2,200	*300
West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine	2,000	1,800	*200
West Renfrewshire	4,300	3,900	*400
Western Isles	1,200	1,100	*100

Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred. Totals may not sum due to rounding.
2. Figures include all incapacity benefit, severe disability allowance and incapacity benefit credits-only cases.
3. Figures marked *" are based on very few sample cases and therefore subject to a high degree of sampling error and should be used as a guide to the current situation only.
Source:
Information Directorate, 5 per cent. sample.





 
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Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people claimed incapacity benefit in each year from 1996. [210735]

Maria Eagle: The information is in the table.
Incapacity benefit and severe disablement allowance claimants, in the quarters shown

As at August:	Number
1996	2,746,300
1997	2,739,900
1998	2,672,600
1999	2,645,900
2000	2,653,400
2001	2,703,600
2002	2,706,700
2003	2,715,800
2004	2,704,200

Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.
2. Figures include all incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance and credits-only cases; they include a small number of claimants resident overseas.
Source:
IAD Information Centre, 5 per cent. samples

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was spent on (a) short-term incapacity benefit at the lower rate, (b) short-term incapacity benefit at the higher rate and (c) long-term incapacity benefit in the last year for which figures are available, broken down by constituency. [211005]

Maria Eagle: The information is not available in the format requested. The available information has been placed in the Library.

Mr. Cummings: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many incapacity benefit claimants there are in each constituency in the County of Durham other than Easington. [213533]

Maria Eagle: The information requested is as follows.
All incapacity benefit and severe disability allowance claimants in the requested parliamentary constituency at 31 August 2004

	Number
Bishop Auckland	6,200
City of Durham	4,800
Darlington	5,300
North Durham	6,300
North West Durham	5,500
Sedgefield	6,800

Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred.
2. Figures include all incapacity benefit, severe disability Allowance and credits-only cases.
Source:
IAD Information Centre, 5 per cent. sample.





 
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Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the change in benefit payments that will occur as a result of the replacement of incapacity benefit for some claimants (a) with the proposed rehabilitation support allowance and (b) with the proposed disability and sickness allowance. [214817]

Maria Eagle: Our intention is to replace incapacity benefits for new claimants to ensure people with health conditions and disabilities are helped to prepare for a return to the labour market wherever feasible.

As part of this new regime claimants of the rehabilitation support allowance will be required to participate in work-focused interviews and take steps to prepare for a return to work. Fulfilling both these requirements would mean claimants receiving a level of benefit payment higher than the current long-term rate of contributory incapacity benefit. People on the disability and sickness allowance would also receive a level of benefit payment higher than the current long-term rate but this will not be dependent on them taking steps to prepare for a return to work.

Specific payment rates for the future benefit regime have not yet been set. Overall expenditure implications of these new payments would depend on the rates set.

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