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19 Dec 2005 : Column 2452W—continued
Household Poverty
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what percentage of households were in poverty (a) before housing costs and (b) after housing costs in the most recent year for which figures are available; and how many in each case were (i) local authority tenants, (ii) housing association tenants, (iii) private tenants, (iv) owner occupiers with a mortgage and (v) those who own outright. [38319]
Margaret Hodge: Poverty is about more than low income. It is also about health, housing, education and the quality of the environment. The seventh annual 'Opportunity for all' report (Cm 6239), published in October 2005, 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 individuals living in low income households is available in Households Below Average Income 1994/95–2003/04", available in the Library. The threshold of below 60 per cent. contemporary median income is the most commonly used in reporting low income.
Information on the percentage of households in relative low income, and the number of households in low income by tenure type is presented in the following
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table for 2003–04. A relative low income household is defined here as a household with income below 60 per cent. of contemporary median income.
Notes:
1.Tables show percentages rounded to the nearest percentage point, and numbers rounded to the nearest 100,000.
2.Figures may not sum due to rounding.
Income Support
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average length of time taken by the Department is to process requests for appeals in relation to income support awards. [36328]
Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 12 December 2005]: The administration of the Appeals Service is a matter for the Chief Executive of the Appeals Service, Christina Townsend. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Christina Townsend, dated 19 December 2005:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question regarding the average length of time taken by his department to process requests for appeals in relation to income support awards.
I refer the Honourable member to my letter dated the 21st November 2005, a copy of which can be found on the House of Commons Hansard within the Written Answers section, column 1669W.
Industrial Injuries Benefit
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of expenditure by his Department on industrial injuries benefit for each year from 1990–91 to 2006–07; and if he will make a statement. [36737]
Margaret Hodge: The information is in the table.
Notes:
1.Figures are for Great Britain
2.Figures have been rounded to the nearest £ million.
3.Figures for real terms are based on 2005–06 prices.
4.The industrial injuries benefits expenditure quoted is a total of industrial injuries disablement benefit, industrial death benefit, and other industrial injuries benefits.
5.Expenditure information is published on the Department's internet website at the following address—http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/expenditure.asp. The information in the internet tables has recently been updated, following the pre-Budget report 2005, and is therefore consistent with the pre-Budget report.
Source:
Expenditure figures have been taken from the DWP Expenditure Tables (Tables 3, 3a, 4, and 4a).
19 Dec 2005 : Column 2454W
Jobcentre Plus
Sir Malcolm Rifkind: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) if he will list the (a) private companies and (b) voluntary organisations that deliver Jobcentre Plus contracts; [27868]
(2) what percentage of outsourced employment services contracts are delivered by (a) private companies and (b) voluntary organisations; and what the value is in 2005–06 in each case. [27869]
Margaret Hodge: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 19 December 2005:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions requesting a list of organisations that deliver Jobcentre Plus contracts broken down into private and voluntary sector organisations, and what percentage of outsourced employment services contracts are delivered by these organisations and their contract value for 2005–06. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
A list of organisations which have Jobcentre Plus contracts has been placed in the library. Unfortunately, we are currently not able to breakdown this list of providers between private and voluntary organisations. This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
However, Jobcentre Plus is currently implementing a new system which will enable information on programmes and providers to be obtained and collated more readily. The decision to set up this improved database came as a recommendation from the Jobcentre Plus Programme Procurement Review. Jobcentre Plus has set up a new externally administered accreditation service which will capture comprehensive information on all contractors and their sub contractors, broken down by programme and by type of organisation e.g. private company, voluntary body etc. This new system should be largely complete by April 2006.
With regard to your request for information regarding contract value, the total available budget for all Jobcentre Plus provision for 2005–06 is £1.1 billion. The actual expenditure on all these demand led contracts will, of course, depend on the volume of customers who actually take up the opportunities available within the various programmes. It will not be possible to break down expenditure by category of provider until the new database is available from April 2006.
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many claimants live more than five miles from an integrated Jobcentre Plus customer-facing office. [34250]
Margaret Hodge: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 19 December 2005:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question concerning how many claimants live more than 5 miles away from an integrated Jobcentre Plus customer facing office. This falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
We do not hold information on the distance our customers have to travel to their nearest Jobcentre Plus office.
In planning the new network of Jobcentre Plus offices, local managers take into account many factors including population spread, availability and cost of public transport, and the distance between offices. We aim to locate our new offices where there are good transport links.
Inevitably as the office network changes, there will be some customers who will find they will have to travel further. Jobcentre Plus is actively working with local partners to ensure that these hard to reach communities have access to services. In many locations, particularly rural locations, we are often able to provide outreach facilities, ensuring access to job vacancies, advice and information through third party premises.
In practice this means that with our new network, very few of our customers would have to travel more than 5 miles to access Jobcentre Plus services, other than in the most remote rural areas. Customers are now using our offices differently. More of our face-to-face customer contact is on an appointment basis and information on job vacancies is readily available by telephone and Internet. This enables staff in our offices to focus on those customers in greatest need of support.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how Jobcentre Plus has performed against its customer service targets in each year since 2001. [35359]
Margaret Hodge: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 19 December 2005:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question concerning how Jobcentre Plus has performed against its customer service targets in each year since 2001. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Jobcentre Plus was created in April 2002 bringing together the former Employment Service and those parts of the former Benefits Agency delivering services to working age people.
Jobcentre Plus's performance against its targets is published each year in our Annual Report and Accounts, copies of which can be found in the House of Commons Library. Performance against our Customer Service Target for the last three operational years and current operational year is in the table below.
For the operational year 2004/05, social security offices were included in the data capture process for the Customer Service Target. These offices had not previously been assessed under the Mystery Shopper component of the target. There were training initiatives underway at the time to up skill the staff. This was against a background of reducing headcount and the continued rollout. The expected progress on rollout was not achieved in 2004/05, and therefore the target achievement level was not upgraded in 2005/06.
| Target | Achievement | |
|---|---|---|
| 2002–03 | 79 | 85 |
| 2003–04 | 83 | 83.4 |
| 2004–05 | 81 | 83.2 |
| 2005–06 | 81 | 84.8 |
Note:
For 2005–06 the performance achieved is up to end of September 2005.
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