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14 Dec 2005 : Column 1993W—continued

Office for Disability Issues

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 11 November 2005, Official Report, column 798W, on the Office for Disability Issues, what criteria his Department uses to decide whether a consultation will be (a) an informal exercise and (b) a formal consultation; in which circumstances each are used; for what reasons his Department decided the consultation on the establishment of the Office for Disability Issues would be an informal exercise; and how his Department communicates to relevant individuals and organisations the status of a consultation. [32551]

Mrs. McGuire: All Government Departments follow the Cabinet Office Guidelines on consultation. These guidelines clearly state how Departments should run formal consultations and are available in the Library (Cabinet Office Guidance on Consultations). However
 
14 Dec 2005 : Column 1994W
 
as this was an informal consultation and involved no change to either statute or regulations, the formal guidance was not applicable.

We were determined to ensure as many disabled people as possible could engage with us, and through the informal consultation we had many opportunities to engage, through regional consultation events, leaflets, intensive calls to disability organisations, signposts on local authority, Disability Rights Commission, Disability Now and You able websites and press advertising. We offered people the opportunity to express views by e-mail, in writing, by telephone, in various languages including Welsh and Braille and had copies of the consultation available in easy read and audiotape. We employed an external research company to ensure all responses were treated fairly and in unbiased fashion.

Pathways to Work

Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of Pathway to Work participants have moved into jobs in each of the pilot areas. [17608]

Margaret Hodge [holding answer 17 October 2005]: The information is not available in the format requested because we only know about Jobcentre Plus and, NDDP job broker job entries. We also have information on return to work credit awards. However, we can provide information on job entries recorded through these channels and this is provided in the following table. The total number of job entries that actually occur will be higher than this as there will be a significant number of benefit leavers that have found jobs that were not the result of a direct intervention from Jobcentre Plus. The job entry proportion, as shown in the table, is an under-estimate of the true underlying job entry rate due to the fact that more recent cases will have had less time to find a job.
All customers
Customers attending initial
eight week WFI
Customers starting on Choices
programme
DistrictTotalNumber with job entryProportion with job entry (percentage)TotalNumber with job entryProportion with job entry (percentage)TotalNumber with job entryProportion with job entry (percentage)
Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Argyll and Bute16,9702,960175,7801,190212,5601,05041
Gateshead and South Tyneside12,1701,510123,660470131,64057035
East Lancashire15,2002,030135,350780151,67056034
Bridgend and Rhondda, Cynon, Taf18,4203,040176,0701,030173,1401,54049
Derbyshire27,0403,320127,6101,300173,12097031
Essex25,6601,91076,900720102,23056025
Somerset9,4901,270132,720450171,33058044
Total124,95016,0401338,0905,9401615,6905,83037




Notes:
1. Participants are defined as anyone who has contacted Jobcentre Plus about making a claim for incapacity benefits plus those existing claimants who have volunteered to participate.
2. Job entrants include all recorded job entries plus return to work credit awards for which no job entry is yet recorded.
3. Data are to the end of August 2005.
4. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.





Figures are presented for all customers entering the pilot, those customers who attend the initial work focused interview after eight weeks and those customers taking up an element of the choices package. All customers making a claim to incapacity benefit in the pilot districts are defined as participants as they are
 
14 Dec 2005 : Column 1995W
 
subject to the Pathways to Work regime. However a significant proportion of customers leave benefit early stages of the claim and therefore do not attend the initial work focused interview where the full range of support is explained.

Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the Pathways to Work pilots currently in operation. [37308]

Margaret Hodge: The Pathways to Work pilots are operating in 11 areas.

The first three started operating in October 2003 and are in Bridgend, Renfrewshire and Derbyshire.

Further pilots in Gateshead and South Tyneside; Somerset; Essex and East Lancashire started in April 2004. Four more pilot areas were rolled out in October 2005 in Glasgow, Cumbria, Lancashire West, and Tees Valley.

A further 10 pilots in Durham, Lanarkshire and East Dunbarton, Staffordshire, Barnsley and Rotherham (to be merged with Doncaster), Manchester (to be merged with Salford and Trafford), Greater Mersey, Liverpool (to be merged with Wirral), Eastern Valleys, Swansea Bay (to be merged with West Wales), and City of Sunderland will roll-out in 2006.
 
14 Dec 2005 : Column 1996W
 

Pensioner Poverty

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of pensioners were living in absolute poverty in each region of the UK in each of the last 30 years. [36911]

Mr. Timms [holding answer 12 December 2005]: The seventh annual 'Opportunity for all' report (Cm 6673) sets out the Government's strategy for tackling poverty and social exclusion and reports progress against a range of indicators. Detailed information about the number and proportion of pensioners living in low income households for Great Britain is available in Households Below Average Income (HBAI) 1994–95–2003–04", available in the Library.

Robust figures on pensioners in low income, broken down by region, for each of the last 30 years are not available. Three-year rolled averages for the number and proportion of pensioners in absolute low income are available for the Government office regions, Scotland and Wales from 1994–95. These are set out in the following tables. Equivalent data is not available for Northern Ireland, as the necessary information has only been collected for two financial years.

An individual in absolute low income is defined as someone living in a household with income below 60 per cent. of 1996–97 median income, adjusted for inflation.
Number of pensioners in absolute low income
(millions)

Three-year rolling averages
1994–95 to 1996–971995–96 to 1997–981996–97 to 1998–991997–98 to 1999–20001998–99 to 2000–20011999–2000 to 2001–022000–01 to 2002–032001–02 to 2003–04
Before housing costs
North East0.120.110.100.090.090.070.060.04
North West and Merseyside0.300.280.270.260.230.200.180.16
Yorkshire and Humberside0.240.230.210.200.180.150.120.11
East Midlands0.180.190.180.180.160.150.140.12
West Midlands0.210.220.220.200.190.170.160.15
Eastern0.250.210.200.200.190.170.140.12
London0.200.200.190.170.160.150.130.12
South East0.290.280.270.260.240.220.190.17
South West0.240.240.230.220.190.170.150.13
Wales0.150.140.130.120.110.090.070.07
Scotland0.230.210.180.160.150.130.100.09




Source:
Family Resources Survey





Number of pensioners in absolute low income
(millions)

Three-year rolling averages
1994–95 to 1996–971995–96 to 1997–981996–97 to 1998–991997–98 to 1999–20001998–99 to 2000–20011999–2000 to 2001–022000–01 to 2002–032001–02 to 2003–04
After housing costs
North East0.160.150.130.110.090.070.050.04
North West and Merseyside0.350.330.310.270.220.170.140.12
Yorkshire and Humberside0.290.270.250.220.180.140.110.08
East Midlands0.210.210.190.180.160.130.120.10
West Midlands0.250.260.240.210.180.150.130.11
Eastern0.320.260.250.230.210.150.120.10
London0.330.310.290.270.230.190.140.12
South East0.380.350.320.310.260.220.170.15
South West0.280.290.260.230.190.150.120.09
Wales0.160.150.130.120.100.080.060.05
Scotland0.280.260.230.200.170.130.100.08




Source:
Family Resources Survey
The following table gives the percentage of pensioners living in absolute low income
for Scotland, Wales and Government office regions.




 
14 Dec 2005 : Column 1998W
 

Percentage of pensioners in absolute low income
(percentage)

Three-year rolling averages
1994–95 to 1996–971995–96 to 1997–981996–97 to 1998–991997–98 to 1999–20001998–99 to 2000–20011999–2000 to 2001–022000–01 to 2002–032001–02 to 2003–04
Before housing costs
North East262321202015129
North West and Merseyside2523232219161513
Yorkshire and Humberside2826242320171412
East Midlands2626252422201916
West Midlands2625232120181715
Eastern2422222120171412
London2019181715141312
South East2120181817151312
South West2425232219171512
Wales2725232219161312
Scotland2724211914141210
After housing costs
North East353228242015108
North West and Merseyside2928262319141110
Yorkshire and Humberside333128252116129
East Midlands2929272421171613
West Midlands3129262320161411
Eastern3128272422161210
London3230282623191412
South East2725232218151210
South West292926241915129
Wales282724221815119
Scotland322926231915119




Note:
1.Figures are provided using a three-year rolled average, as single-year estimates do not provide a robust guide to year-on-year changes. Figures are therefore not same as previously published single-year estimates.
2. Tables show numbers in millions and rounded to the nearest 10,000.
Source:
Family Resources Survey




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