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13 Mar 2006 : Column 1844W—continued
Benefit Claimants
Edward Miliband: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have come off benefits and entered work in (a) South Yorkshire and (b) Doncaster North constituency in each year since 1997. [50588]
Margaret Hodge:
The information is not available in the format requested.
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The Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No. 244 Destination of benefit leavers 2004showed that nationally, 62 per cent. of claimants leaving income support, incapacity benefit or jobseeker's allowance entered employment of 16 hours or more a week. Copies of the report are available in the Library.
Council Tax Benefit
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the criteria are for pensioners to qualify for council tax benefit; and if he will make a statement. [56624]
Mr. Plaskitt: Pensioners receiving the guarantee element of pension credit are treated as having no income or capital and are entitled to council tax benefit in full, subject to any deductions for any non-dependant household member. In other cases, a pensioner's income is compared with an applicable amount. If their income is at or below the applicable amount, full benefit is payable, again subject to any deductions as set out above. Where income exceeds the applicable amount, or where capital is held, benefit is tapered off progressively depending on the amount of income and capital held.
Job Centres
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the turnover of staff was in job centres in (a) the London borough of Hillingdon, (b) Greater London and (c) England in the calendar year 2005. [54980]
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.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the turnover of staff in Jobcentres in (a) the London Borough of Hillingdon, (b) Greater London and (c) England in the calendar year 2005. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Jobcentre Plus does not hold figures for the turnover of staff for individual London boroughs, for Greater London or for England alone. However we do collect figures under the following headings:
| Staff turnover rate | |
|---|---|
| Brent, Harrow and Hillingdon District | 5.8 |
| London Government Office Region | 6.2 |
| Great Britain | 6.5 |
Source:
Combined Dataview
Jobcentre Plus
Mark Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what provision has been made for (a) people who are hard of hearing and (b) Welsh language speakers under the Jobcentre Plus customer management system. [51652]
13 Mar 2006 : Column 1846W
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.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions asking what provision has been made for (a) people who are hard of hearing and (b) Welsh language speakers under the Jobcentre Plus Customer Management System. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
The Customer Management System (CMS) is the IT system which supports the Jobcentre Plus process for gathering information from customers to support claims to Working Age Benefits. Claim information is primarily gathered via the telephone with customers contacting a Contact Centre, but also by face-to-face meetings and postal applications.
All the Contact Centres have fully trained text phone users to enable a customer to converse via a text phone. Arrangements are in place for staff in the Contact Centre to identify vulnerable customers, including those who are hard of hearing, and make alternative arrangements. This might include use of a text phone, or arrangements for a face-to-face meeting at the local Jobcentre when a fully trained face-to-face First Contact Officer will take the required details from the customer. Jobcentre Plus offices are equipped with induction loops to support our vulnerable customers. Alternatively, the customer could elect to be represented by a third party.
Where a customer wishes to converse in Welsh, the First Contact Officer will identify if there are any Welsh-speaking colleagues in the office who are available to take the call. The customer can then talk to the relevant Welsh-speaking officer to continue the process of gathering information. Where a Welsh-speaking First Contact Officer is not available, arrangements are made to call the customer back when one is available. Once all the relevant information has been gathered, the Contact Centre will then arrange for the notifications to be translated via the Welsh Language Unit before issuing them to the customer.
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what national targets have been set for Jobcentre Plus benefit application processing times; and what has been performance against targets over the last two years. [54250]
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.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking what national targets have been set for Jobcentre Plus benefit application processing times and what has been performance against targets over the last two years. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Jobcentre Plus does not have targets for benefit processing times. However, data relating to claim clearance times is collected and measured against acceptable standards of delivery" that are set at the beginning of the year. The length of time it takes to process a claim is measured by looking at the Actual Average Clearance Time of claims within a set period and is a Key Management Indicator.
The acceptable standards of delivery are: Income Support— 12 days, Jobseeker's Allowance—12 days, Incapacity Benefit— 9 days.
A Jobseeker's Allowance taskforce has been created to address fluctuating Jobseeker's Allowance clearance times and set in place immediate recovery measures, whilst longer term issues are also being taken forward. More immediate measures include the more effective distribution of workloads amongst the Contact Centre network to improve performance.
Building on the taskforce's work, the Jobcentre Plus Chief Operating Officer launched a National Action Plan in the week commencing 30 January. The Action Plan is built around a mandatory series of health checks", taking local managers through the whole end to end process, identifying key risk elements and, where a part of the process fails the health check, directing managers to appropriate good practice products and tool-kits. Regular reviews are undertaken to ensure areas of our business do not fall below expectation. We are already seeing improvements following the introduction of these measures.
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will give a higher priority in Jobcentre Plus's performance measurance to its performance in keeping employed people in their jobs. [55738]
Margaret Hodge: Jobcentre Plus's jobs target is based on a points system. The number of points awarded reflects the priority group of the customer helped into employment in line with the Government's priorities for welfare reform. Targets are reviewed annually.
From April 2006 we will be using Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) data to measure job outcomes. This presents an opportunity to significantly improve our arrangements for measuring retention in work.
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