| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
12 Sept 2005 : Column 2512W—continued
Employment Target
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will set out the baseline against which progress towards the 80 per cent. employment target will be measured; when he expects the target to be achieved; and if he will make a statement. [13534]
Mr. Timms: An employment rate equivalent to 80 per cent. of the working age population in work is a long-term and challenging aim.
With unemployment at low levels, helping economically inactive people into work is crucial to achieving our aim. Building on recent reforms we intend to go further to:
support more children and families; including helping more lone parents into work by making work possible and making work pay;
help more people on incapacity benefits to get the support they need to fulfil their ambitions to return to work and achieve independence;
further break down the barriers that prevent disabled people, older people, ethnic minorities and others at a disadvantage in the labour market from moving back into work.
We are currently discussing the baseline against which progress towards 80 per cent. employment will be measured.
Families and Children Study
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for what reason the Families and Children Study no longer identifies separately married, cohabiting and step families; and if he will revert to providing this breakdown at the first opportunity. [11336]
Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 11 July 2005]: The Families and Children Study collects a wealth of information. Because of the quantity of variables on the dataset it is not practical to include all of these in the annual reports. Judgments are made about which information is most relevant to the Government Departments sponsoring the study. The report Family life in Britain: findings from the 2003 Families and Children Study", which is available in the Library, describes families as either lone parent or couple families as this is consistent with how DWP clients are segmented in welfare-to-work programmes and the benefit system. We have no plans to change this.
The full datasets, including variables indicating the nature of the relationship between all individuals in a household, are made publicly available through the Economic Social and Research Council data archive, as is standard practice for surveys commissioned by this Department.
Housing Benefit
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will break down the housing benefit case load by (a) (i) elderly, (ii) unemployed, (iii) disabled and (iv) single parent client group, (b) age and (c) region in each year since 1997. [5480]
Mr. Plaskitt:
The information has been placed in the Library.
12 Sept 2005 : Column 2513W
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many and what percentage of new housing benefit claims were successful in each year since 1997, broken down by region; [5483]
(2) how many new housing benefit claims were made in each year since 1997, broken down by (a) basis of claim and (b) region. [5484]
Mr. Plaskitt: A breakdown of information by the basis for which a claim was made is not available. The available information has been placed in the Library.
HSC 10-year Plan
Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress has been made against the targets contained in the Health and Safety Commission's Revitalising Health and Safety Strategy 10-year Plan published in June 2000. [13980]
Margaret Hodge: The health and safety statistics for 2004–05 will be published in the autumn. These will provide the latest information on progress against the Government and HSC/E's targets.
Identity Cards
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what estimate he has made of the cost of equipping his Department's premises with identity card readers; [9891]
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what assessment he has made of (a) the cost and (b) the merits of checking the biometric identities of individuals receiving benefits and services through his Department. [9941]
Mr. Timms: We have been working with the Home Office to identify areas where the identity cards scheme could provide business benefits. On 28 June 2005, my right hon. friend, the Home Secretary placed in the Library a paper containing the latest estimates of benefits of the identity cards scheme which shows that the benefits outweigh the costs once the scheme is fully operational.
The cost of equipping premises will depend on the nature of the use of the identity cards scheme and the type of identity check(s) necessary to deliver the business benefits. In some cases, benefits could be realised without the use of card readers and the cost of installing any readers needs to be considered alongside future plans to refresh or upgrade IT systems. As the design of the scheme matures, during and after the procurement exercise, so will our understanding of where the scheme will be of most benefit which will allow us to further refine our estimates of costs and benefits.
We have conducted a high level assessment of the number of card readers that will be required by the Department. Our initial estimate is that in the region of 4,500 readers may be required. The Home Office currently estimate the cost of a card reader would fall within the range of £250—£750 depending on their level of sophistication and performance.
Detailed work is being undertaken on how the Department will make use of checking the biometric identities of individuals. This will become clearer
12 Sept 2005 : Column 2514W
following further definition of the identity card scheme and DWP business requirements for interaction with the scheme are fully known. However the use of the biometric identity card will facilitate the verification of customer identity and improve customer service. From a counter fraud perspective the production of a biometric identity card will stop an individual registering a claim to benefit in more than one identity.
Incapacity Benefit
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many claimants of incapacity benefit there were on average in each social services authority in (a) 2001 and (b) the most recent period for which figures are available. [6327]
Mrs. McGuire: The information is not available in the format requested. The information for local authorities in Great Britain has been placed in the Library.
Mr. Byers: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many new claimants aged (a) 20 to 29, (b) 30 to 39, (c) 40 to 49 and (d) 50 to 59 years were awarded incapacity benefit in (i) each standard English region, (ii) Wales and (iii) Scotland in each of the last five years; and what percentage this represented of the population in each age group in each year. [7412]
Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 27 June 2005]: The information has been placed in the Library.
Mr. Hood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Scotland are in receipt of incapacity benefit; how much money was allocated to incapacity benefit in Scotland in 2004; and if he will make a statement. [14060]
Mr. Timms: The incapacity benefit caseload in Scotland for 2004–05 was 326,900.
The incapacity related benefits expenditure in Scotland for 2004–05 was £1,453,000,000 in cash terms.
3. Incapacity-related benefits are Incapacity Benefit (IB), Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA) and Income Support (IS) with a disability premium—credits only IB/SDA cases are also included.
5. Expenditure figures are 2004–05 estimated outturn and are consistent with the DWP Budget 2005 Expenditure Tables on the Internet.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |