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21 Feb 2005 : Column 424W—continued
Parking
Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been spent on (a) provision of parking spaces for civil servants and (b) parking tickets and penalties incurred by civil servants in the Department in each year since 1997. [213809]
Maria Eagle: DWP was formed in June 2001 from the former Department of Social Security (DSS) and parts of the former Department for Education and Employment, including the Employment Service (ES). Information for the period prior to June 2001 refers only to the former DSS.
DWP currently occupies approximately 1,800 buildings, of which there are only nine where the cost of car parking can be readily identified. For all other buildings car parking costs are not recorded separately from other occupancy costs.
The available information is in the following table.
| Cost (£) | |
|---|---|
| 1998–99 | 163,900 |
| 1999–2000 | 61,400 |
| 2000–01 | 58,700 |
| 2001–02 | 61,100 |
| 2002–03 | 167,000 |
| 2003–04 | 243,000 |
Notes:
1. The information is not available for 1997.
2. The increase in costs in 2002–03 and 2003–04 is due to the inclusion of expenditure on car park rental by HSE. This parking is in addition to the parking provided at any DWP site.
21 Feb 2005 : Column 425W
The Department does not incur any costs relating to parking tickets and penalties incurred by civil servants.
Pension Credit and Winter Fuel Payments
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners are in receipt of pension credit; and what the average value is of awards. [216772]
Malcolm Wicks: Information on numbers of households and individuals in receipt of pension credit at national level and in each Government Office Region and constituency at 31 December 2004, with the average award, is contained in the most recent quarterly pension credit progress report published on 3 February. A copy of the report is in the Library.
Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in each ward of Wallasey constituency claim pension credit. [217314]
Malcolm Wicks: The information is given in the following table.
Ward | Pension credit recipients (households), December 2004 |
|---|---|
| Leasowe | 960 |
| Liscard | 935 |
| Moreton | 730 |
| New Brighton | 1,020 |
| Seacombe | 1,050 |
| Wallasey | 615 |
Notes:
1. All wards are based on census wards, current as at April 2003.
2. All benefit counts at ward level are rounded to a multiple of five, to protect the confidentiality of individual claimants.
Source:
IAD Information Centre, Department for Work and Pensions, 100 per cent. sample.
21 Feb 2005 : Column 426W
Mrs. Fitzsimons: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners in Rochdale constituency have received pension credit in each year since it started. [217378]
Malcolm Wicks: The information is given in the table. Further information on numbers of households and individuals in receipt of pension credit and average awards at 31 December 2004 is contained in the most recent quarterly pension credit progress report, which was published on 3 February. A copy of the report is in the Library.
| Date | Households | Individuals |
|---|---|---|
| December 2003 | 4,510 | 5.465 |
| December 2004 | 5,485 | 6,710 |
Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest five.
2. Figures relate to the end of the month.
3. Individuals comprise claimants and partners and may contain a small number of partners aged under 60.
4. Pension credit replaced minimum income guarantee from 6 October 2003.
5. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant ONS directory.
6. The figures for December 2004 are the latest available.
Source:
IAD Information Centre, Department for Work and Pensions, 100 per cent. sample
Mr. Ronnie Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners in each ward in Blyth Valley were receiving (a) pension credit and (b) winter fuel payments on the latest date for which figures are available. [217152]
Malcolm Wicks: The information is given in the table.
Notes:
1. All wards are based on census wards, current as at April 2003.
2. Winter fuel payment data for winter 2003–04 is the latest available. No figures are currently available for 2004–05.
3. All benefit counts at ward level are rounded to a multiple of five, to protect the confidentiality of individual claimants.
Source:
IAD Information Centre, Department for Work and Pensions
21 Feb 2005 : Column 427W
Pensions
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will place in the Library, from successful applications to the Pension Service Partnership Fund for (a) one year contracts and (b) two year contracts, anonymised information on how each applicant would (i) measure the progress and (ii) evaluate the success of their initiative; what each applicant listed as its expected outcome; and how many of the successful applications made reference to the number of people the proposed initiative aimed to target. [216759]
Malcolm Wicks: All one year and two year contracts awarded by the Pension Service Partnership Fund require successful applicants to provide monthly statistical returns to the DWP on the progress of their activity for the purpose of informing both the evaluation of the individual schemes and the fund as a whole.
We anticipate that increased benefit take-up will be an end result of activity resourced through the fund and all successful applicants provided information on the potential numbers of benefit applications they expected to generate through their activities.
The variation in the scale of the contracts awarded through the fund is significant with national and countywide schemes expecting to contact in excess of 50,000 individuals, and the smallest scale neighbourhood schemes intending to reach around 150–200 potential benefit customers.
Information on the expected outcomes of each successful applicant and their specific proposals for measuring progress and evaluating success is only available by individual scrutiny of their application and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Sir John Butterfill: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will restore the indexing of pensions to British subjects living in overseas countries where uprating no longer takes place; and if he will make a statement. [217031]
21 Feb 2005 : Column 428W
Malcolm Wicks: We have always uprated State Pensions for British citizens living overseas 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. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) when the last pension order book was issued; [217101]
(2) how many pension order books are in circulation. [217102]
Mr. Pond: The last pension order book was issued on 9 February 2005 and all order book production for the Pension Service ceased on 10 February. Information available at 2 February suggests that the total number of pension order books in circulation at that date was 1,016,908.
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