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20 Jun 2005 : Column 708W—continued
VAT (Religious Buildings)
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will extend the 100 per cent. VAT refund on repairs to religious buildings beyond the three years pledged in his last Budget. [5390]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Chancellor has pledged funding for the listed places of worship VAT refund scheme until 2007–08 unless EU agreement on a reduced rate of VAT is achieved earlier.
Decisions on spending allocations beyond 2008 will be made as part of next year's Spending Review.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Council Tax
20. Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the take-up of council tax benefit in Wales. [5092]
Mrs. McGuire: There are 272 thousand active council tax benefit claims in Wales, with over 11 thousand in Wrexham. Data on the rate of council tax benefit take-up in Wales are not available as it is only produced for Great Britain as a whole.
We are working with local authorities to make sure they have procedures in place locally to encourage people to apply for council tax benefit. I refer my hon. Friend to the answer my colleague gave earlier.
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David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what meetings he has had with the Deputy Prime Minister in the past two weeks to discuss a revision of the regulations relating to pensioners paying council tax; and if he will make a statement. [5088]
Mr. Timms: The Secretary of State has not had any meetings with the Deputy Prime Minister in the last two weeks to discuss pensioners and council tax.
Child Tax Credit
23. Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the transfer to child tax credit of the remaining families with children in receipt of income support and income-based jobseeker's allowance. [5096]
Mr. Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member to my earlier reply.
Pensions Commission
24. Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for how long he expects the consultation on the findings of the Pension Commission to last. [5097]
Mr. Timms: I refer the hon. Member to the answer Igave earlier to his hon. Friend the Member for New Forest, East (Dr.Lewis).
Child Support Agency
Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the timetable is for transferring old cases at the Child Support Agency to the new scheme. [5091]
Mr. Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member to my earlier reply. We have asked Stephen Geraghty, the new Chief Executive to report to us in the summer when we will consider his findings and proposals for action.
Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when Child Support Agency cases that pre-date the new system will be transferred onto the new system. [749]
Mr. Plaskitt: A new chief executive of the agency has recently taken up post. He will be reporting to Ministers over the summer on proposals to improve the agency's performance.
We will make a decision on the transfer of old scheme cases only once we are confident that the system and business processes are robust.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff were employed at the Child Support Agency in each year since 1997–98; what the projected numbers are for each year to 2006–07; and if he will make a statement. [955]
Mr. Plaskitt:
The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Mr. Stephen Geraghty. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
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Letter from Stephen Geraghty to Mr. David Laws, dated 20 June 2005:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff were employed at the Child Support Agency in each year since 1997–98; what the projected numbers are for each year to 2006–07; and if he will make a statement.
The table below shows actual staff numbers for the Child Support Agency for the period 1997–98 to 2004–05.
The table reflects whole time equivalent employees and is consistent with that shown in the Annual Report and Accounts.
| Actual staff | |
|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 8,445 |
| 1998–99 | 8,156 |
| 1999–2000 | 8,545 |
| 2000–01 | 9,187 |
| 2001–02 | 9,471 |
| 2002–03 | 10,287 |
| 2003–04 | 10,215 |
| 2004–05 | 9,750 |
The Agency is planning to employ 9,561 staff in March 2006 and March 2007. This is equivalent to 9,388 staff excluding those on unpaid absences, and is in line with the staffing levels agreed with Ministers.
Youth Unemployment
Mr. Scott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many young people are economically inactive. [5093]
Margaret Hodge: There are currently 2.1 million under 25s who are classified as economically inactive, two thirds of whom are in full-time education. Of the remaining 695,000, many will be participating in part-time study or receiving support from either the Connexions Service or Jobcentre Plus.
Incapacity Benefit Claimants
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of whether people with mental health problems will be affected by the planned reform of the incapacity benefit system. [5095]
Mrs. McGuire: In developing our proposals for the reform of incapacity benefit we will continue our extensive consultation to ensure that people with mental health problems receive the right support.
The Pathways to Work pilots have drawn on the commitment and expertise from across the public, private and voluntary sectors to give people the help they need.
Benefits/Pensions (Payment Methods)
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints have been received regarding the introduction of Direct Payment for the payment of pensions and benefits. [3152]
Mr. Plaskitt:
The information requested is not available in the format requested. However independent research has shown that there are very high levels of
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satisfaction among customers who have transferred to Direct Payment with 93 per cent. of customers stating they were happy to receive their benefits in this way.
Modernising a system, which came in with ration books, caused understandable concerns, but this research has shown that the new system is proving popular. More customers now have accounts and over 12 million payments each week are now paid into customer's nominated accounts.
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what (a) information and (b) training has been given to Post Office staff about the exceptions scheme for people who are unable to use Post Office Card Accounts or basic bank accounts to receive their pensions or benefits. [3154]
Mr. Plaskitt: The small minority of people who are unable to use Post Office Card Accounts or basic bank accounts to receive their pensions or benefits are paid by cheque.
The cheque (formerly girocheque) is a well established method of payment and Post Office staff were already very familiar with the general processes and procedures surrounding encashment at a Post Office.
Training for Post Office staff is an operational matter for Post Office Ltd. However, Post Office Ltd. were given information about changes to the cheque design and crossing limit introduced in October 2004 which they communicated to their network of branches throughout GB and Northern Ireland by means of an internal 'Operational Focus' publication.
Customers who ask Post Office staff about benefit payments are advised to contact the DWP office dealing with their claim where they will be given all the advice, information and support they need.
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what steps the (a) Benefits Agency and (b) Pensions Agency have taken to publicise the availability of the exceptions scheme for people who are unable to use Post Office card accounts or basic bank accounts to receive their pensions or benefits; [3155]
(2) through what mechanisms benefit and pension recipients may inform his Department that the Direct Payment option of the payment of benefits and pensions is not suitable for their needs. [3159]
Mr. Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) on 25 May 2005, Official Report, column 117W.
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimates were made prior to the introduction of Direct Payment of the proportion of people for whom this method of paying pensions and benefits would be unsuitable; and if he will make a statement. [3161]
Mr. Plaskitt:
During the Spending Review 2000, a public service agreement target was set at paying 85 per cent. of benefit and pension customers into an account by the end of 2005. We met that target by January 2005 and are now paying over 96 per cent. of customer accounts by Direct Payment.
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We always recognised however that there would be a small number of customers who we could not pay into an account and the cheque service was designed to pay these customers.
As at April 2005 we were paying some 712,000 customers by cheque.
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