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27 Jun 2005 : Column 1251W—continued

Council Tax Payments

Janet Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he expects pensioner households will receive the £200 payment towards council tax bills. [5947]

Mr. Plaskitt: It is intended that pensioner households will receive the £200 payment with their winter fuel payment at the end of the year.

Disability Living Allowance

Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many claims for disability living allowance were (a) made and (b) rejected in each year since 2001, broken down by nation and region. [7014]

Mrs. McGuire: The requested information is not available by nation and region. The information that is available is in the table.
Disability living allowance claims received and refused inGreat Britain from 2001–05

	Number of claims:
	Received	Refused
2001	411,990	196,885
2002	427,965	194,605
2003	438,710	215,135
2004	439,095	234,180
2005(5)	176,460	91,365

⁽⁵⁾Figures are for calendar years (January to December) except 2005 which covers January 2005 to May 2005.
Notes:
1.Data are taken from the Management Information System (MIS) computer system.
2.Figures have been rounded to the nearest five.
Source:
IAD Information Centre, 100 per cent. data





 
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Financial Assistance Scheme

John Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what estimate he has made of the cost of including members of the APW (Eastleigh) pension scheme in the Financial Assistance Scheme; [1698]

(2) what estimate he has made of the cost of including in the Financial Assistance Scheme all schemes which were wound up between May 2004 and April 2005 whose parent companies are still solvent; [1699]

(3) what estimate he has made of the number of members of pension schemes which were wound up between May 2004 and April 2005 and whose parent companies are still solvent; [1700]

(4) what estimate he has made of the number of members of pension schemes which were wound up between May 2004 and April 2005. [1841]

Mr. Timms: None—information is not available on which to base such estimates reliably.

The data collection exercise undertaken to facilitate the development of the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS), which ended in December 2004, identified 26 schemes (with some 7,000 members) which started to wind up between 14 May 2004 and 1 December 2004. Of those schemes, six (with some 1,400 members) appear to be sponsored by employers that had not undergone an insolvency event at that time. However, given the information provided before and during the exercise on the likely scope of the FAS, it is probable that some schemes connected to solvent employers did not provide returns.

Home Responsibilities Protection

Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has for the reform of home responsibilities protection. [5646]

Mr. Timms: Home Responsibilities Protection which was introduced in 1978 ensures that carers, particularly women caring for children, can build up entitlement to a full basic state pension. The Government launched its national debate on 24 February with the publication of Principles for Reform: The national pensions debate". This set out our guiding principles on which further work would be taken forward. Producing fair outcomes for women and carers is one of these principles.
 
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Housing Benefit

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the cost of housing benefit
 
27 Jun 2005 : Column 1254W
 
paid to (a) pensioners, (b) disabled people, (c) lone parents, (d) unemployed people and (e) others, in each of the last eight years, in (i) cash and (ii) real terms. [3574]

Mr. Plaskitt: The information is in the tables.
Annual housing benefit expenditure by client group—nominal and real terms £ million, nominal

	1997–98 outturn	1998–99 outturn	1999–2000 outturn	2000–01 outturn
Housing benefit and discretionary housing payments.	11,176	11,065	11,066	11,166
of which:
People aged 60 and over	3,781	3,843	3,931	4,110
Long-term sick and disabled	1,782	1,966	2,132	2,286
Lone parents	2,614	2,654	2,731	2,648
Short-term sick	406	335	330	342
Others excluding unemployed people	875	851	688	652
Unemployed	1,719	1,417	1,255	1,129

£ million, nominal

	2001–02 outturn	2002–03 outturn	2003–04 outturn	2004–05 estimated outturn
Housing benefit and discretionary housing payments	11,590	12,638	12,365	13,052
of which:
People aged 60 and over	4,380	4,730	4,457	4,868
Long-term sick and disabled	2,493	2,945	2,949	3,152
Lone parents	2,666	2,855	2,932	3,048
Short-term sick	338	365	350	329
Others excluding unemployed people	674	668	690	723
Unemployed	1,039	1,075	979	932

£ million, 2005–06 prices

	1997–98 outturn	1998–99 outturn	1999–2000 outturn	2000–01 outturn
Housing benefit and discretionary housing payments	13,547	13,037	12,760	12,727
of which:
People aged 60 and over	4,583	4,528	4,532	4,685
Long-term sick and disabled	2,160	2,316	2,458	2,605
Lone parents	3,168	3,127	3,149	3,018
Short-term sick	492	395	380	390
Others excluding unemployed people	1,061	1,003	793	743
Unemployed	2,083	1,669	1,447	1,286

£ million, 2005–06 prices

	2001–02 outturn	2002–03 outturn	2003–04 outturn	2004–05 estimated outturn
Housing benefit and discretionary housing payments	12,883	13,582	12,916	13,379
of which:
People aged 60 and over	4,868	5,084	4,659	4,990
Long-term sick and disabled	2,771	3,165	3,082	3,231
Lone parents	2,963	3,068	3,064	3,124
Short-term sick	375	392	366	338
Others excluding unemployed people	750	718	722	741
Unemployed	1,155	1,155	1,023	955

Notes:
1.Totals may not sum due to rounding.
2.Figures are on a Resource Accounting and Budgeting basis.
3.Some figures for past years may have changed since previous publications owing to the incorporation of more up-to-date information.
4.Expenditure for 2004–05 reflects the latest benefit-by-benefit estimate of outturn, and not the amounts voted by Parliament.
5.Total amounts paid to beneficiaries, irrespective of the source of funding. Includes benefit spending reimbursed by DWP, spending on rent rebates financed within local authorities' Housing Revenue Accounts, and benefit spending financed from local authorities' general funds.
6.From 2004–05 the figures shown take into account the transfer of responsibility of The Rent Service to DWP.
7.Real terms have been calculated using gross domestic product deflators updated after the Budget Report of 16 March 2005.
Source:
DWP Income-related benefit expenditure tables; table 7.




 
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Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of tenants receiving housing benefit in (a) the deregulated private sector, (b) the regulated private sector and (c) registered social landlord accommodation are (i) pensioners, (ii)disabled, (iii) lone parents, (iv) unemployed and (v)others. [3577]

Mr. Plaskitt: The information is in the table.
Proportion of housing benefit recipients in each client group with deregulated, regulated and registered social landlord (RSL) tenancies, Great Britain—May 2003 Percentage

		Aged under 60
	Aged 60 or over	Disabled	Lone parents	Unemployed	Others
Deregulated	18.8	26.0	27.1	12.6	15.4
Regulated	81.6	9.9	2.7	2.2	3.6
RSL	42.1	23.1	21.6	5.2	8.1

Notes:
1.Figures are based on a 1 per cent. sample and subject to a degree of sampling variation.
2.The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple.
3.Percentages are rounded to one decimal place and may not sum due to rounding.
4.Housing benefit figures exclude any Extended Payment cases.
5.Aged 60 or over" are cases where the claimant and/or partner are aged 60 or over.
6.Disabled" are cases where the claimant and partner are aged under 60 and in receipt of a disability premium.
7.Lone parents" are single claimants aged under 60, with a dependent, and not in receipt of a disability premium.
8.Unemployed" are cases where the claimant and partner are aged under 60, and one is in receipt of income based or contribution based jobseeker's allowance, not on a Government training scheme and not in receipt of a disability premium.
9.Others" are cases not falling into any of the categories shown.
Source:
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System, Annual 1 per cent. sample, taken in May 2003.





 
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Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints in respect of housing benefit were reported to the Local Government Ombudsman in each year since 1997, broken down by region. [5453]

Mr. Woolas: I have been asked to reply.

Information on the number of complaints in respect of housing benefit received each year by each of the three Local Government Ombudsmen is given as follows:

Number of cases received each year	Ombudsman in London (currently, broadly covering north London, Essex, Kent, Suffolk, Surrey, East Sussex, West Sussex, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire)(6)	Ombudsman in Coventry (currently, broadly covering south London, most southern and central England, and the south west)(6)	Ombudsman in York (currently, broadly covering the north of England, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire)(6)
1997–98	725	206	216
1998–99	913	171	281
1999–2000	1,669	258	426
2000–01	2,704	356	968
2001–02	1,097	1,050	849
2002–03	799	557	697
2003–04	701	517	649
2004–05	678	442	348

⁽⁶⁾From time-to-time, responsibility for cases in particular local authority areas are redistributed between Ombudsmen, so as to even out the Ombudsmen's workloads.

Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many local authorities have transferred administration of housing benefit to another provider due to persistent failure to meet required standards in each of the last five years. [5455]

Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available.

Local authorities can choose whether they administer housing benefit themselves or use other service providers for part or all of the process.

The Secretary of State also has the power to require a local authority to use a different provider where it has failed to meet the requirements of statutory directions to improve its performance. It has not been considered necessary to use this power.

Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which software systems are used in the housing benefit pathfinders to administer housing benefit. [5470]

Mr. Plaskitt: The software systems being used by the nine LHA Pathfinder authorities are provided by the following IT suppliers: Anite; Civica; Academy; and SX3.

Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how often housing benefit claimants are required to renew their claims (a) in the pathfinder areas and (b) in other areas, broken down by region. [5474]

Mr. Plaskitt: Since October 2003 in the case of pensioners, and since April 2004 in the case of other people, housing benefit claims no longer have to be renewed.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) if he will make a statement on the conclusions of the research on the single room rent restriction; [5633]

(2) if he will place in the Library a copy of the research into the single room rent restriction. [5634]

Mr. Plaskitt: This research, which was published on 9 June 2005 as part of the Department for Work and Pensions Research series (Report number 243), confirms that the proportion of young people facing a shortfall, between benefit and rent, is on a downward trend and those who occupy accommodation covered
 
27 Jun 2005 : Column 1257W
 
by the single room rent definition face similar levels of shortfall, on average, to other claimants subject to the Local Reference Rent.

This research also identifies problems young people can face when trying to rent in the private rented sector and we will consider carefully whether there are further improvements we can make to the housing benefit scheme which will help alleviate these.

The report is available in the Library.

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