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Debt Centres

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many outstanding cases there were in each debt centre in the Department as at 1 December. [39638]

Mr. Plaskitt: At 1 December the number of cases where recovery action had yet to commence was 422,137 broken down by debt centre as in the table below. This includes 37,194 of the 48,000 cases that were stockpiled awaiting the outcome the Hinchy judgment. The number of cases awaiting action has risen temporarily, as we would expect while successfully undertaking data migration onto a new, standard commercial debt management IT system.

Debt centre	Total outstanding
Dearne Valley	57,144
Corby	51,510
Makerfield	39,052
Bradford	59,818
Glasgow	38,778
Stornoway	53,071
Manchester	25,486
Porth	39,408
Nuneaton	57,870
Total	422,137

Employment Advisers (GP Surgeries)

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what plans he has to pilot the placement of employment advisers in general practitioner surgeries; and if he will make a statement; [51734]

(2) what funds will be made available for the placement of employment advisers in general practitioner surgeries; what assessment he has made of the merits of the use of employment advisers from (a) Jobcentre Plus, (b) private companies and (c) voluntary organisations; and if he will make a statement. [51735]

 
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Margaret Hodge: As part of the Pathways to Work approach Jobcentre Plus has been working closely with a wide range of NHS professionals in surgeries and other health settings to promote the health and employment message. Some non-governmental organisations have already placed employment advisers in general practitioner surgeries across the country and our proposals came from this experience.

We want to build on the knowledge gained from these experiments and will be running pilots in five of the seven current Pathways to Work Pilot areas, where we will place employment advisers in general practitioner surgeries. We have already begun piloting this in two surgeries in Bridgend and Paisley. All pilots will be in place by April 2006 and will continue until March 2008.

The pilot will examine if an outreach service in health settings is a good way to engage with people who have a health condition or disability. In particular, we want to see if it is an effective method to reach those who do not currently access work focused support. The lessons learned from these pilots will help to ensure the success of our proposals recently published in our Green Paper; A new deal for welfare: Empowering people to Work". Any decisions on future roll out or methodology, as part of the Pathways approach, will be taken following an evaluation of the pilot.

EU Citizens

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many workers from the new European Union member states are claiming unemployment benefits in the United Kingdom. [56906]

Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available; no record is kept of claimants' nationalities.

Jobcentre Plus

Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what consultation Jobcentre Plus conducted in relation to changes in tendering processes for prime contractors for the new deal in the North West. [51866]

Margaret Hodge: We are introducing new contracting procedures to reduce the bureaucratic costs to Jobcentre Plus and improve performance. Changes to the new deal contract tendering process have been carried out across all Jobcentre Plus regions including the North West region.

Prior notice of the tendering competitions, including our revised Contracting Strategy, was placed on the Provider pages of the Jobcentre Plus website at www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk and promoted through newspaper advertisements. We place an advertisement twice a year in 'The Voice', the Metro and the Guardian, to inform providers of the range of tendering opportunities available on the website, and have also placed an advertisement in the February edition of the Voluntary Services Directory.

We are assisting bidders and potential sub-contractors through supplier briefings at stage two of the contracting process at meetings held in Newcastle,
 
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Birmingham and London. We also ensure that the Provider question and answer section on our website is regularly updated.

Throughout the contracting process we have kept the Association of Learning Providers (ALP) and the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) fully informed of all developments and changes to the new deal contracting process. The ALP and ERSA are working with this Department, the Treasury and the National Audit Office as part of a Provider Task Force to improve the quality and performance of our employment programmes.

Pathways to Work

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the outcomes of (a) pathways to work participants who volunteer for the condition management programme and (b) participants who have similar conditions but who do not volunteer for the condition management programme; and if he will make a statement. [43143]

Margaret Hodge: The condition management programme is a voluntary option in our successful pathways to work and around 7,100 people have chosen this option. Of these 17 per cent. were no longer claiming benefits and nine per cent were in work within six months.

The information requested is not available on participants who have similar conditions but who do not volunteer for the condition management programme.

Post Office Card Accounts

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much the Post Office used to receive for each order book payment it made before the introduction of the Post Office Card Account (POCA); what other administrative costs the Government paid in respect of each order book transaction; and if he will estimate the average amount per transaction which the Government lost through fraud when using (a) the POCA and (b) order books. [52624]

Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available in the format requested. The cost to the Government of an order book payment prior to the introduction of the Post Office card account was about 68p per foil.

DWP used to lose around £50 million a year through order book fraud and around 100 pensioners had their order book stolen each week.

The introduction of direct payment has removed these risks as payments now go direct into accounts nominated by the customer.

There is currently no evidence of any loss to the Government through fraud in the transmission of payments to the Post Office card account.

Mrs. Humble: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Blackpool, North and Fleetwood constituency use Post Office card accounts to receive benefits and pensions. [56556]

 
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Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available in the format requested.

Information showing the number of DWP benefit and pension payment accounts paid by direct payment into a Post Office card account for each parliamentary constituency has been placed in the Library.

SERPS

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the weekly state earnings-related pension scheme and second state pension entitlement is for someone retiring with (a) 10 and (b) 20 years' national insurance contributions. [56996]

Mr. Timms: The requested information is in the following table.

	Additional pension (£)
Entitlement based on 10 years contributions:	27
Entitlement based on 20 years contributions:	55

Notes:
1. All figures have been expressed in 2005–06 earnings terms based on constant median full-time adult earnings.
2. We have assumed standard rate class 1 national insurance contributions have been paid, or treated as paid, during the last 10 and 20 years of the individual's working life.

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