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18 Mar 2005 : Column 500W—continued
CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT
New Opportunities Fund
Mr. Lazarowicz: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much money from the New Opportunities Fund was allocated to Edinburgh, North and Leith in each year since 1997. [222910]
Estelle Morris: The following table shows the amount awarded to Lottery projects by the New Opportunities Fund in the constituency of Edinburgh, North and Leith.
| Amount awarded (£) | |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 250,773 |
| 2001 | 1,336,259 |
| 2002 | 1,105,254 |
| 2003 | 1,084,276 |
| 2004 | 358,891 |
| 2005 | 69,961 |
| Total | 4,205,414 |
This information is freely available from the Department's searchable Lottery award database at www.lottery.culture.gsi.gov.uk, which uses information supplied by the Lottery distributors.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Benefit Fraud
Mr. David Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what levels of benefit fraud have been detected in Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber in each of the last three years. [222082]
Mr. Pond: The information is not available.
Mr. David Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much it costs to run the Benefit Fraud hotline in each of the last three years; and how many calls it received in each year. [222120]
Mr. Pond: The information is in the table.
| Operational costs (£) | Calls received | |
|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 1,086,000 | 205,999 |
| 2002–03 | 959,277 | 159,290 |
| 2003–04 | 1,038,505 | (9)21 3,471 |
(9) Includes 2,421 calls received by the Local Authority Fraud Hotline which commenced in September 2003.
Notes:
1. Operational costs include staffing, goods and service costs.
2. The operational costs of administering the National Benefit Fraud Hotline include the costs of administering the report-a-cheat-online service. These costs cannot be separated.
Source:
National Benefit Fraud Hotline.
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Council Tax Benefit
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans the Government have to increase council tax benefit take-up; and if he will make a statement. [219881]
Mr. Pond: Last year we launched a council tax benefit awareness campaign and we are continuing to support local authorities in raising awareness of council tax benefit in the run-up to, and during, this year's billing round, supported by new posters and flyers, and by press advertising.
National advertising started on 10 January, followed by two weeks of regional press advertising. Further regional press advertising will be released in early March, to coincide with the issue of the council tax bills.
A copy of the council tax benefit flyer was issued with winter fuel payment notification letters, going to around 12 million pensioners encouraging them to "Cut your Council Tax—Find out if you should be paying less."
Flyers are also available in doctors' surgeries, and have been issued to over 20,000 organisations dealing with older people. An electronic version of the flyer is also available for local authorities to download and include with their council tax bills; they can also include a coupon for those who want to claim council tax benefit to fill in and return to their local authority.
We are checking whether those who have already claimed pension credit have claimed CTB (and HB) if appropriate, too, so that we can encourage those who have not claimed to apply—and similarly whether those on HB/CTB have applied for pension credit.
Mr. Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners in Leeds, West receive council tax benefit; and what the total amount of such benefit was in the last year for which figures are available. [221963]
Mr. Pond: The information is not available.
Fuel Direct
Mr. Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has to extend the fuel direct payment system to include customers who are not in debt; and if he will make a statement. [221332]
Mr. Pond: There are no plans to extend the fuel direct scheme to include customers who are not in debt, nor any to curb its existing provisions. Such a modification would run counter to our policy of promoting financial inclusion by encouraging people to take advantage of direct debit facilities in bank accounts to pay bills. It would also be incompatible with our aims of achieving a fair and reasonable balance between rights and personal responsibilities, and maintaining the momentum from welfare dependency into work for all those who can.
Homeless People (Education)
Ms Oona King:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on his plans to
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reform the 16-hour rule to enable young homeless people to study full-time while in receipt of housing benefit. [222590]
Mr. Pond: We are currently reviewing the part-time study rules for jobseeker's allowance and housing benefit recipients. We expect the review to be completed by the autumn.
Income Statistics
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the average net income after tax and benefits in (a) cash and (b) real terms for (i) each quartile, (ii) two parent families with children, (iii) single parent families with children, (iv) single pensioner households and (v) pensioner couples in (A) the City of York and (B) Yorkshire and the Humber in each year since 1996–97. [222227]
Mr. Pond: The information requested is not available. DWP statisticians are reviewing regional-level estimates and hope to release such estimates as they deem robust, combining years from the Family Resources Survey, when further investigations are complete.
Jobseeker's Allowance
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the levels of jobseeker's allowance were in (a) 2003–04 and (b) 2004–05; what plans he has to increase the levels of jobseeker's allowance in 2005–06; and if he will make a statement. [222923]
Mr. Pond: The information is in the table.
18 Mar 2005 : Column 503W
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