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14 Mar 2006 : Column 2169W—continued
Employment (Over 50s)
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many unemployed people aged over 50 years have been assisted back to work in (a) Denton and Reddish constituency, (b) Stockport Metropolitan Borough and (c) Tameside Metropolitan Borough since 1997. [58007]
Margaret Hodge: Information on the number of people aged 50 and over in the specified areas who have been helped into work through all the programmes which are available to them is not available. Information on the number of people aged 50 and over who have been helped into work through the New Deal 50 plus programme is in the table.
| Location | People into jobs |
|---|---|
| Denton and Reddish Constituency | 240 |
| Stockport Metropolitan Borough | 510 |
| Tameside Metropolitan Borough | 500 |
Notes:
1. New Deal 50 plus was introduced in April 2000.
2. Latest data are to November 2005.
Source:
DWP Information Directorate
European Social Fund
Mr. Davey:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the level of European Social Fund
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(ESF) funding for post-education skills is for (a) 2005–06, (b) 2006–07 and (c) 2007–08; how much funding is allocated to (i) 16 to 18 Learning and Skills Council (LSC) funding and (ii) 19+ LSC funding; and whether ESF funding is included within LSC allocations announced in the grant letter issued. [55257]
Mr. Plaskitt: Planned European Social Fund (ESF) expenditure for post education skills is estimated to be (a) £283 million in 2005–06, (b) £304 million in 2006–07 and (c) £170 million in 2007–08. Estimates of ESF expenditure will be subject to change over time. Within these figures the amounts allocated to the LSC to date are: £241.3 million in 2005–06, £253.5 million in 2006–07, and £144.4 million in 2007–08. These allocations are not broken down by age. ESF funding is not included within LSC allocations announced in the annual grant letter issued by the Secretary of State for Education and Skills. ESF expenditure is additional to domestic expenditure.
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the level of European Social Fund (ESF) funding is for his Department's programmes in (a) 2005–06, (b) 2006–07 and (c) 2007–08 in England; how much is allocated for each programme; and whether ESF funding is included within the planned total set out in his Department's 2005 annual report. [55258]
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Mr. Plaskitt: Total planned ESF expenditure is £515.5 million in 2005–06, £537.5 million in 2006–07 and £534.9 million in 2007–08. In both 2006–07 and 2007–08, £75 million is allocated to supporting additional activity within the new deals for young people and 25 plus. Apart from this, ESF expenditure is not directly allocated to domestic employment programmes. All ESF expenditure is additional to domestic programme expenditure. ESF expenditure is included within the planned total set out in the Department's 2005 annual report.
Fraud
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time Customer Compliance Officers there will be in 2006–07 to tackle low level fraud that cannot be taken through the criminal courts; [56436]
(2) whether new Customer Compliance Officers will be classified in his Department's accounts as full-time fraud investigators. [56437]
Mr. Plaskitt: In addition to investigators dealing with criminal investigation, from April 2006 there will be around 1,000 Customer Compliance Officers dealing with lower level suspected fraud cases and benefit claims deemed to be of high risk, both at the start of or during the benefit life cycle. At this time, it is not possible to provide a breakdown into full-time and part-time posts.
Customer Compliance Officers are not part of the Fraud Investigation Service resource and will not be classified as fraud investigators in the Department's accounts.
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost was of employing full-time fraud investigators in each of the last three years. [56438]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not centrally collated and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what is the estimated cost of employing customer compliance officers in each of the next three years. [56473]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is in the following table.
| Estimated cost | |
|---|---|
| 2006–07 | 26.6 |
| 2007–08 | 27.6 |
| 2008–09 | 28.7 |
Notes:
1. These figures are based on staff numbers (including management, support staff and those directly involved in customer compliance interviewing) of around 1,000 and average salaries.
2. Increases in years 2007–08 and 2008–09 are based on an assumed rise in staff costs of 4 per cent. each year.
Free Movement of Persons Directive
Michael Gove:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what regulations the Government
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plans to bring forward to ensure that Directive 2004/38/EC, on the free movement of persons, does not result in significant additional costs to the UK social security system; [57353]
(2) how long a national from another EU member state must have been employed in the UK before they are allowed to claim the same social security benefits as a UK national if they are involuntarily made unemployed; and what the position will be when Directive 2004/38/EC, on the free movement of persons, comes into force; [57355]
(3) how long a national from another EU member state must have been employed in the UK before they are entitled to the same social security benefits as a non-UK citizen; and what the position will be when Directive 2004/38/EC comes into force; [57356]
(4) whether there are any social security benefits from which nationals from other EU member states resident in the UK are always excluded; and what the position will be when Directive 2004/38/EC, on free movement of persons, comes into force; [57357]
(5) under what circumstances a national from another EU member state would be classed as creating an unreasonable burden on the UK's social assistance system and therefore qualify for expulsion; [57359]
(6) what measures the Government have put in place to monitor and expel nationals from other member states whom it considers are placing an unreasonable burden on the UK's social assistance system. [57360]
Mr. Plaskitt: There is a wide range of social security benefits in the UK, with different rules governing access to them. There is no one rule which states how long an individual must have been resident or have worked in the UK before they can claim benefits.
As a general rule, nationals from EU states working in the UK and paying NI contributions have the same access as UK workers to contributory benefits.
In relation to other benefits, EU nationals have rights to equal treatment under the EU Treaty which are given effect by EC regulations, in particular EC Regulation 1408/71, These rules are complicated, but there are no benefits from which an EU national can be permanently excluded.
Current UK regulations require that a person must be habitually resident in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or the Republic of Ireland (generally known as the Common Travel Area) to qualify for non-contributory income-related benefits. The habitual residence test was amended on 1 May 2004 when the Social Security (Habitual Residence) Amendment Regulations 2004 came into force. The test provides that no person should be treated as habitually resident in the Common Travel Area if he or she does not have a right to reside there. Therefore anyone without a right to reside cannot qualify for the relevant benefits. There are some categories of individuals who are exempt from the habitual residence test, including EU workers.
Directive 2004/38/EC has implications for access by EU nationals to non-contributory income-related benefits.
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The directive, broadly, consolidates existing EC legislation relating to rights of residence in the EU. The Home Office is responsible for transposing the directive into domestic legislation and is preparing draft regulations to come into force on 30 April 2006.
The key aspects of the directive from DWP's point of view is that it provides:
A new right to reside for all EU nationals and their family members for the first three months of their stay in the UK even if they are not self-sufficient; and
That member states are not obliged to confer entitlement to social assistance to EU nationals during that first three months of residence unless they are workers, self-employed persons, persons who retain such status and their family members (cf. Article 24(2) of the Directive).
This means that the UK's regulations relating to income-related benefits need to be amended to ensure that economically inactive EU nationals are not automatically given a right to benefit just because they have a right to reside.
The Government will therefore be introducing The Social Security (Persons From Abroad) Amendment Regulations 2006". These will achieve the following, with effect from 30 April 2006:
Apply the derogation in Article 24(2) of the directive in respect of income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance, state pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit; and
Update, where appropriate, the terminology in the income-related benefit regulations so that previous references to EC legislation are expressed in terms of the new directive.
The Home Office is responsible for assessing whether an EU national is removable. We are working with the Home Office to define the circumstances where an EU national is potentially removable for being an unreasonable burden on the UK social assistance system and any subsequent procedures to effect removal should that person be defined as an unreasonable burden on the host member state.
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