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Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people claiming (a) jobseeker's allowance and (b) disability benefit have more than five GCSEs or equivalent qualifications in (i) England, (ii) the Tees Valley and (iii) Middlesbrough, South and East Cleveland constituency. [26488]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available.
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people received (a) housing benefit, (b) council tax benefit, (c) income support and (d) incapacity benefit in the constituency of Hemel Hempstead, in each year since 1997. [24039]
Mr. Plaskitt: The available information is in the tables.
1997 | 2,000 |
1998 | 2,000 |
1999 | 2,200 |
2000 | 2,400 |
2001 | 2,500 |
2002 | 2,500 |
2003 | 2,500 |
2004 | 2,500 |
2005 | 2,500 |
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Kingston and Surbiton constituency have received (a) widows benefit, (b) housing benefit, (c) council tax benefit and (d) income support in each year since 1997. [23887]
Mr. Plaskitt: The available information is in the tables.
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of men who lost their wives and who claimed for widows and bereavement benefits prior to 1 April 2001 but whose claims were rejected are now eligible to claim retrospectively for (a) widow's bereavement allowance and (b) bereavement payment; and if he will make a statement on eligibility to backdated widows' and bereavement benefits in cases where the wife of a man died before 1 April 2001. [26259]
Mr. Plaskitt: Bereavement benefits were introduced on 9 April 2001 for both men and women. Prior to this date there was no provision to pay widows' benefits to men and this is still the case.
The Government have decided to offer settlement on claims for discrimination relating to widowed mothers' allowance and widow's payment, but only to those widowers who have an admissible case in the European Court of Human Rights and who satisfy the benefit conditions and made their original claim at the correct time. Widowers who were unsuccessful in the recent cases before the House of Lords were able to take their case to Europe provided they did so by 4 November 2005 (six months from the House of Lords ruling). We are not currently aware of how many cases may be involved.
Any claims for widow's payment or widowed mothers' allowance by a man whose wife died before 9 April 2001 and who has not previously made an application to the European Court or was not involved with the domestic cases will now be too late. Any claims received from widowers at Jobcentre Plus or social security offices will be subject to the usual late claim rules and will be disallowed because they are out of time. In deciding on this approach we have been guided by previous admissibility decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in widowers' cases.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many potential child support cases are awaiting processing at the point of entry for benefit cases via the Jobcentre Plus interface. [18698]
Mr. Plaskitt: At the end of August 2005 there were 85,000 such cases. However, in addition to new valid applications this figure includes applications where there is insufficient information available to identify the non-resident parent, and changes of circumstance in relation to an existing case.
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he will reply to the correspondence dated 22 March and 1 April from the hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton with regard to Mr. Stephen Stone, reference Ston010, sent again on 4 July. [23877]
Mr. Plaskitt: I replied to the hon. Member on 31 October. I am sorry that the hon. Member's correspondence was handled incorrectly in the Department.
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