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14 Mar 2006 : Column 2160W—continued
London Allowance
Kate Hoey: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what plans her Department have to change the London allowance of its staff; and if she will make a statement. [50007]
Bridget Prentice: The majority of staff subject to DCA terms and conditions and based in London do not receive a London Allowance/London Weighting in addition to their basic salaries. The former London Weighting allowances were consolidated into basic salaries in 1998 and as a result we now have higher basic salaries for staff in London. This reflects the local employment market with separate scales for inner and outer London.
In addition there are approximately 400 staff, in the South East who receive a Local Pay Addition that relates specifically to their location and grade. These allowances were introduced in 1989 as a market supplement to address high turnover in particular locations and is being phased out. Payments under this scheme are lost when staff move to non-qualifying posts.
There is a DCA Pay and Grading Project currently underway looking at all matters relating to pay and allowances. Subject to the project recommendations new pay, grading and benefit arrangements should be introduced later this year.
Parliamentary Constituencies
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what estimate she has made of the adult population to registered electorate ratio for the proposed new parliamentary constituency boundaries in England; and if she will make a statement. [58005]
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Ms Harman: From the 2001 census figures we can calculate the adult population of England to be 37,997,691 and the Office for National Statistics calculated the registered electorate in England to be 37,151,991 in December 2005. The Government cannot comment on the proposed new parliamentary constituency boundaries in England prior to receiving the Parliamentary Boundary Commission for England's final report.
Postal Voting
Mark Hunter: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the minimum number of days is before polling day that returning officers are obliged to send postal votes to electors who have registered for such ballot papers. [57574]
Ms Harman: There is no statutory latest day for sending out postal ballot packs to electors. Returning Officers cannot send out postal votes to electors until the deadline for electors to apply for postal votes has passed, as postal or proxy voters may until 11 working days before polling day switch from one such absent voting" preference to another (or cancel their absent voting request altogether), but they will aim to do so as soon as possible after that deadline.
Mark Hunter: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what steps her Department is taking to publicise (a) the rules governing and (b) the deadlines applying to the use of postal voting at the forthcoming local elections. [57573]
Ms Harman: Electoral administrators appointed by local authorities for the purpose are responsible in law for the conduct of elections, including dissemination of information about postal voting procedures. The independent Electoral Commission has among its statutory responsibilities a duty to promote public awareness of current systems of local government in the United Kingdom and the Commission is running a public information campaign for the forthcoming local elections with a helpline and website where information on the rules governing, and the deadlines applying to, the use of postal voting is available. In addition the Commission has also produced a leaflet, which sets out the rules governing postal voting.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Access to Work
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the impact of Pathways to Work pilots on demand for support from the Access to Work scheme in those areas; and if he will make a statement. [56900]
Margaret Hodge: Information on the additional demand for Access to Work in Pathways areas is not collected separately.
Benefits
Andrew Selous:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people receive pensions
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and benefits through (a) Post Office card accounts and (b) basic bank accounts in the South West Bedfordshire constituency. [56487]
Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 6 March 2006]: The information is not available in the format requested.
At 24 December 2005, 4,200 pension and benefit accounts were being paid into a Post Office card account and 22,700 were being paid into a bank or building society account in the South West Bedfordshire constituency. These figures do not include Post Office card accounts used by other Government Departments to pay benefits and tax credits.
2. Figures refer to benefit and pension payment accounts live and in payment on the specified date. People in receipt of more than one benefit/pension have been counted for each separate benefit/pension in payment. People who have their benefit/pension combined and paid at the same time have only been counted through the paying benefit.
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the Green Paper A new deal for welfare: Empowering people to work", what assessment he has made of the merits of proposing that the maximum time between an initial claim for employment and support allowance and the first employability and capability assessment should be lower than 12 weeks. [52647]
Margaret Hodge: In the Green Paper; A new deal for welfare: empowering people to work", we have proposed that the assessment phase should last three months. During this time the revised personal capability assessment process will determine both eligibility for benefit and capability for work. Assessing an individual at a relatively early stage of their claim allows us to maximise their chances of returning to work. However, many people will be on employment and support allowance for very short periods of time and so carrying out assessments too early in a claim could lead to nugatory assessments taking place.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether his Department's 2005 target for the direct payment of benefits was met. [57018]
Mr. Plaskitt: Yes—in December 2004.
Child Support Agency (Private Debt Collectors)
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many private debt collectors have been used by the Child Support Agency in each year since 1996–97; how much they collected in maintenance arrears; and if he will make a statement. [45580]
Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 30 January 2006]: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Stephen Geraghty. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many private debt collectors have been used by the Child Support Agency in each year since 1996–97; how much they collected in maintenance arrears; and if he will make a statement.
Non-resident parents have a financial obligation to support their children. The Child Support Agency currently receives over £585 million maintenance per year however there is still a culture surrounding its activities whereby some non-resident parents perceive it as acceptable not to comply with the Agency and make their maintenance payments. The Agency has therefore begun to take steps to tackle this issue.
When undertaking civil recovery processes to recover arrears of child support maintenance the Agency will first obtain a Liability Order to have the debt legally recognised. Thereafter a variety of civil recovery processes will be employed to secure the debt. Under Child Support Legislation, (Child Support Act 1991 Regulation 35 and Collection and Enforcement Regulations 1992 Regulation 30) the Agency is empowered to utilise private firms of Bailiffs to levy distress.
Over the period 1996 to 2000 the Agency had contracted one private firm of Bailiffs to undertake distress action throughout England and Wales. From May 2001 contracts were let to three private firms of Bailiffs, each with responsibility for distress action in specific geographical areas. These contracts are up for renewal in spring 2006.
Exact Bailiff collections information is not available for the period up until April 2004 as prior to this any collections were added into the overall Agency collections figures.
| Bailiff Collections (£ million) | |
|---|---|
| April 2004 to March 2005 | 3.1 |
| April to December 2005. (Year to date) | 3.2 |
Similarly, in Scotland, legislation (Child Support Act 1991 Regulation 37, the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 and the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002 enables the recovery of debt by use of diligences undertaken by private firms of Sheriff Officers. As officers of the court, Sheriff Officers are instructed by the Agency to carry out diligences within their respective Sheriffdoms. The Agency does not have any contracts with private firms of Sheriff Officers in Scotland.
No information is held in relation to debt collected by Sheriff Officers as, unless immediate payment is forthcoming, non-resident parents are instructed to make payments direct to the Agency and as mentioned previously these payments will be included in Agency collections figures.
Since August 2005 the Agency has also been involved in a small scale pilot using two private debt collection companies to assess the feasibility of involving the private sector to recover Agency debt.
In Secretary of State's statement to the House on 9 February 2006, he announced that he was making available a further £30 million to contract out some of the Child Support Agency's debt recovery. We expect that to result in a substantially increased recovery of the current debt owed to parents with care.
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