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4 Jul 2005 : Column 69W—continued
Disability Living Allowance
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 27 June 2005, Official Report, column 1247W, on disability living allowance, what assessment he has made of the reasons the percentage of rejected claims has increased since 2002; and if he will make a statement. [9531]
Mrs. McGuire: The administration of disability living allowance is a matter for the chief executive of the Disability and Carers Service, Mr. Terry Moran. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Terry Moran to Mr. Angus MacNeil, dated 4 July 2005:
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 27th June, Official Report, column1247W, on disability living allowance, for what reason the percentage of rejected claims has increased since 2002. The Minister for Disabled People, Anne McGuire MP, promised you a substantive reply from the Chief Executive of the Disability and Carers Service.
The percentage rejections on disability living allowance claims has increased since 2002 because the conditions of entitlement to benefit have been found not to be satisfied in a greater proportion of claims.
No action has been taken by Disability and Carers Service with the intention of reducing the award rate. Our intention remains to pay the right money to the right person at the right time.
Housing Benefit
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what criteria were used to set the broad rental market areas in the housing benefit pathfinders; how often they will be reviewed; and how they will be monitored; [5477]
(2) what assessment he has made of how up-to-date the information used by rent officers to set (a) standard housing allowances in the pathfinders and (b) the local reference rents or single room rents elsewhere is. [5485]
Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of The Rent Service is a matter for the chief executive, Charlotte Copeland. She will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Charlotte Copeland to Mr. Paul Goodman, dated 4 July 2005:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions about The Rent Service, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, about the criteria used to set the broad rental market areas in the housing benefit pathfinders, how often they will be reviewed, how they will be monitored, and how up-to-date information used by rent officers is when setting rents for Housing Benefit purposes.
The criteria used by rent officers to set the broad rental market areas are covered in the Rent Officers (Housing Benefit Functions)
- (Local Housing Allowance) Amendment Order 2003 [Statutory Instrument 2003 No. 2398]. This defines the broad rental market area as:
(a) comprising two or more distinct areas of residential accommodation, each distinct area of residential accommodation adjoining at least one other in the area;
(b) within which a person could reasonably be expected to live having regard to facilities and services for the purposes of health, education, recreation, personal banking and shopping, taking account of the distance of travel, by public and private transport, to and from facilities and services of the same type and similar standard; and
(c) containing residential premises of a variety of types, and including such premises held on a variety of tenancies."
The broad rental market areas are reviewed on a monthly basis, with a more in depth review carried out each quarter.
The broad rental market areas are monitored through the monthly and quarterly review process and The Rent Service's own internal quality assurance processes.
Rent officers continually research the private rented sector for market evidence of lettings of property and accommodation where the rent is being paid without the aid of housing benefit. The Rent Service's market evidence database is therefore continually being updated with the latest information available.
Rent officers use the most up to date market evidence available when setting Local Housing Allowances, Local Reference Rents and Single Room Rents. The Rent Service's guidelines are that market evidence used should be, in the main, no more than 3 months old, but with a maximum of six months if this is necessary in some cases.
Income Support
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average response time is for processing new applications for income support; and what the figure is for applications received by the Department's Ilford office. [7378]
Margaret Hodge: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Acting Chief Executive, Lesley Strathie. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Lesley Strathie to Mr. James Brokenshire, dated 4 July 2005:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking what the average time is for processing new applications for Income Support: and what the figure is for applications received by the Department's Ilford office. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
The national average clearance time for new applications to Income Support to year ending May 2005 is 10.5 days. The target for the clearance of Income Support claims is 12 days.
As at 31 May 2005 Ilford Benefit Processing Centre (BPC) had 800 new claims waiting to be processed, taking an average of 21.5working days to process.
As at 20 June 2005 there were 276 new claims outstanding, taking an average of 13 working days to process.
As part of the Department for Work and Pensions modernisation programme, backroom benefits work for North East London District customers has been centralised at Ilford BPC. As the work from various locations was transferred to the
- centre there was an increase in the number of telephone enquiries from customers, which caused a backlog of work. Interim measures were put in place to alleviate the immediate problems; these included the opening of additional telephone lines and the deployment of staff from outside the BPC to speed up the processing of claims. The situation at the BPC was monitored daily by local management to ensure any telephone delays were minimised.
The increase in the number of telephone lines coming into the office helped to improve the situation and it will continue to improve as more staff become available in the BPC over the coming weeks and as more work is done to further increase the telephone capacity.
As the figures show there has been a significant improvement over the past month in processing new applications reflecting the hard work of local management and staff.
Maternity Grant
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many Sure Start maternity grants have been paid to mothers in each age cohort from 12 to 19 in each year since 2000–01; and how many mothers received such a grant in respect of a second or subsequent child in each case. [7502]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available.
Post Office Card Accounts
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many Post Office card accounts have been opened; and if he will make a statement. [6358]
Mr. Plaskitt: As at 15 May 2005, 4,720,824 Post Office card accounts were open for the receipt of benefits, pensions and tax credits.
Poverty (London)
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people are estimated to be living below the poverty line in each London borough. [7467]
Margaret Hodge: Poverty is about more than low income. It is also about health, housing and the quality of the environment. The sixth annual 'Opportunity for all' report (Cm 6239), published in September 2004, sets out the Government's strategy for tackling poverty and social exclusion and presents information on the indicators used to measure progress against this strategy.
Specific information regarding low income for Great Britain is available in Households Below Average Income 1994/95–2003/04". The threshold of below 60 per cent. contemporary median income is the most commonly used in reporting trends in low income. Data is not available below regional level, therefore we are not able to provide figures for London boroughs.
Copies of both documents are available in the Library.
4 Jul 2005 : Column 73W
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