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HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMISSION
Members' Allowances
Mr. Dismore: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what consultations the Commission will hold with hon. Members on plans to change hon. Members' stationery and postage allowances; and if he will make a statement. [14191]
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Nick Harvey: The Commission has been considering the level of expenditure by Members on stationery and pre-paid envelopes, which is a charge on the administration estimate. No change will be made to the current entitlement regime without consultation.
Security Barriers (Bridge Street)
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what consultation took place with Transport for London before the installation of steel security barriers in Bridge Street; and what steps will be taken to enable the 211 bus from Waterloo to stop conveniently for visitors to Portcullis House. [14101]
Nick Harvey: Before the installation of the security barriers, Transport for London and Westminster city council were consulted about the implications for traffic operations including buses. The current relocation of the bus stop is considered to be the best option in the circumstances.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Asbestos
Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what advice he has received from the Health and Safety Commission concerning the implementation of the asbestos hazard management regulations; and what resources are being applied to the enforcement of the regulatory requirements for asbestos hazard management. [13990]
Margaret Hodge: In its annual report for 2004–05, the Health and Safety Commission reported that the campaign to raise awareness of the duty to manage asbestos continued in order to encourage increased compliance amongst dutyholders. One of the important elements of the campaign last year was the launch of the successful video How are you managing?".
Health and Safety Executive inspectors are working in a number of ways to encourage dutyholders to comply with the legal requirement to manage asbestos. These include visits to large organisations' head offices, site visits and presentations at events. The planned resource for this work in 2005–06 is similar that allocated in the preceding year when more than 1,000 visits were conducted. At the majority of these visits improvements were secured by the provision of advice but on at least 50 occasions enforcement notices were issued.
Attendance Allowance
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how much attendance allowance has been withheld from pensioners in self-funded care homes in Scotland since the introduction of free personal care in Scotland; [8889]
(2) how many people in Scotland have been paid attendance allowance for which they are ineligible as a result of being in receipt of free personal care; whether the Department intends to seek repayment of such overpayments; and if he will make a statement. [8890]
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Mrs. McGuire: The administration of attendance 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. Danny Alexander, dated 21 July 2005:
In response to your recent Parliamentary Questions, the Minister for Disabled People, Anne McGuire, promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State how much attendance allowance has been withheld from pensioners in self-funded care homes in Scotland since the introduction of free personal care in Scotland. You also asked how many people in Scotland have been paid attendance allowance for which they are ineligible as a result of being in receipt of free personal care and whether the Department intends to seek repayment of any such amounts.
We do not routinely collect statistics that would answer your first question and there would be a disproportionate cost in obtaining the information.
From a recent sampling exercise it would appear that around 200 customers aged 65 or over receiving attendance allowance or disability living allowance care component have been overpaid. This is because they did not report that they are in receipt of free personal care and are residing in a care home in Scotland. We are currently making enquiries of those customers to establish whether an overpayment has arisen.
There may have been other cases in the past where an overpayment arose following a delayed notification that they were in receipt of free personal care. We do not routinely record this information. I am therefore unable to assess how many other cases may have arisen. These will have been dealt with as the information came to our attention.
Where an overpayment has arisen we will look at each case to consider whether recovery of the overpayment is required. In order to ensure that all customers are treated consistently each case will be considered in accordance with the Department's normal business rules. In doing so, great care will be exercised given the likely age and frailty of the customers involved.
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for what reasons those over the age of 65 require six months of night-time care before they qualify for the higher rate of attendance allowance. [13753]
Mrs. McGuire: Attendance allowance provides a contribution towards the extra costs faced by severely disabled people aged 65 or over as a result of long-term disability. The purpose of the six-month qualifying period is to establish that disability and the care needs arising from it are long-term, rather than the result of short-term or transient illness. However, the decision maker will always look at for how long care has been required when the disabled person claims the allowance or reports an increase in their care needs, and will consider whether some or all of the qualifying period had already been completed.
Benefit Cut-off
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much people with disabilities are allowed to earn before their benefits are affected; and if he will make a statement. [13922]
Mrs. McGuire:
Benefits paid specifically for disability, disability living allowance and attendance allowance are, however, not subject to earnings restrictions.
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Disabled people may be entitled to the full range of social security benefits, depending on their individual circumstances. Where they are entitled, they will be subject to the earnings restrictions that apply to those benefits in the same way as all other claimants.
Income related benefits, such as income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit all have a variety of disregards, dependant upon the claimant's circumstances, above which certain earnings are taken into account. The number of hours a person can work whilst claiming these benefits is also restricted. There is a higher disregard for those receiving a disability premium.
Carers Allowance
Mr. Hood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people are in receipt of carers allowance in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland and (c) the Lanark and Hamilton East constituency; and if he will make a statement. [14068]
Mrs. McGuire: The latest available information is that at 28 February 2005, some 436,820 people in Great Britain were receiving carer's allowance, of whom 42,330 were in Scotland. Details of the numbers of carer's allowance recipients in each parliamentary constituency in Scotland at that date are in the table. Information about the number of people receiving carer's allowance in Northern Ireland is a matter for the Northern Ireland Office.
Notes:
1.Figures are rounded to the nearest 5.
2.From November 2002, the methodology for producing these figures was changed to allow statistics to be published much sooner. This has resulted in a small increase in the reported caseload. This is because some cases which have actually terminated but have not yet been updated on the computer system are now included.
Source:
Information Directorate, 100 per cent. data.
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