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3 May 2006 : Column 1602W—continued
Fraud investigation
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much fraud investigators recovered for his Department in each of the last five years. [57635]
Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 10 March 2006]: It is not possible to separate the total amount of overpaid benefit recovered into overpayments due to fraud and those due to other reasons.
Income Support
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what reports he has received on the restoration of the full rate of income support to young people under 25 years; and if he will make a statement. [65984]
Mr. Plaskitt: Since income support was introduced in 1988, a single person aged 18 to 24 has been paid at a lower rate than single people aged 25 and over. It would be a new initiative and not a restoration to pay single customers aged 18 to 24 at the same rate as single customers aged 25 and over.
I am not aware of any reports that have been produced that give consideration to payment of the full rate of income support to single young people under the age of 25.
Jobseeker's Allowance
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many jobseeker's allowance applications have taken (a) more than 12 days, (b) more than 18 days, (c) more than 24 days and (d) more than 48 days to process in the last month for which information is available; and if he will make a statement. [63681]
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 how many Jobseeker's Allowance applicants have taken (a) more than 12 days, (b) more than 18 days, (c) more than 24 days and (d) more than 48 days to process in the last month for which information is available; and if he will make a statement. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
The information you have asked for is not available. Jobcentre Plus measures the time taken to process a claim for Jobseeker's Allowance as the Actual Average Clearance Time. This is measured against a Key Management Indicator which is agreed at the beginning of each year. For 2005/06, this was set at 12 working days. Latest figures show that for the year to February 2006 claims were processed in an average of 14.3 working days.
Jobcentre Plus is transforming the service it provides by making it available via the telephone, via the Internet and through the personal service offered to people in Jobcentre Plus offices. With change on this scale there can be difficulties at the beginning and, as a consequence, average clearance times have increased. This is clearly causing unacceptable delays for customers and we have taken action to address the delays.
On 30 January we launched a National Action Plan designed to reduce clearance times. The plan requires that:
all delivery units work through a Health Check and address the areas where they are under-performing;
Senior Operational Managers were required to provide a formal assurance at the end of February that all elements of the plan are being complied with, although it has been acknowledged that concentration on backlogs of work may initially cause average clearance times to rise. The Chief Operating Officer is monitoring performance very closely.
In order to focus management attention on this issue, the Actual Average Clearance Times measure, which will remain at 12 days for Jobseeker's Allowance claims, has been added to the suite of Jobcentre Plus Targets for 2006/07.
Occupational Pensions
Sandra Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he plans to publish his response to the Parliamentary Commissioner's report on the security of final salary occupational pensions. [68055]
Mr. Timms: In the oral statement made by my right hon. Friend Secretary of State on 16 March he undertook to publish a full response to the Ombudsman's report, including an explanation of the Government's estimate of the cost of implementing the Ombudsman's proposals.
We expect to publish that response shortly.
Pension Credit
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost of administering the pension credit was in each of the last seven financial years; and what estimate he has made of the administration costs in 2006–07. [66151]
Mr. Timms: Information is available only for the year to March 2005. I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 22 March 2006, Official Report, column 411W.
The Department does not estimate its future administration costs on the basis of individual benefits and allowances.
Pensioner Poverty
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners were living in poverty in (a) 1997 and (b) according to the most recent data available. [67336]
Mr. Timms: The seventh annual 'Opportunity for all' report (Cm 6673) sets out the Government's strategy for tackling poverty and social exclusion and reports progress against a range of indicators.
The following tables show the number and percentage of people over State pension age living in households in relative and absolute low income. These show that based on income measured after housing costs the number of pensioners in relative low income has fallen by one million between 1996–97 and 2004–05—there was a fall of half a million between 2002–03 and 2004–05, the years when pension credit came into effect.
3 May 2006 : Column 1604W
| After housing costs | Before housing costs | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number (million) | Percentage | Number (million) | Percentage | |
| 1996–97 | 2.8 | 28 | 2.2 | 22 |
| 2004–05 | 1.8 | 17 | 2.0 | 19 |
Notes:
1. Figures are for Great Britain;
2. Results from Households Below Average Incomes publication.
3. Figures show the number and proportion of pensioners in households below 60 per cent. of median net income (after direct taxes including council tax).
Post Office Card Account
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Scotland use a Post Office card account to receive their pension, broken down by (a) local authority and (b) constituency. [62812]
Mr. Plaskitt: The following tables show the number of state pension payment accounts being paid into a Post Office card account in Scotland broken down by (a) local authority and (b) constituency.
(a) State pension accounts broken down by local authority.
3 May 2006 : Column 1605W
(b) State pensions accounts broken down by parliamentary constituency.
Notes:
Figures are based on information available at 18 February 2006 and are rounded to the nearest 100.
Figures refer to accounts live and in payment on the specified date.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has to encourage financial institutions to enable those using the Post Office card account to transfer to bank accounts with the facility to allow cash withdrawals at post office branches. [67303]
3 May 2006 : Column 1606W
Mr. Plaskitt: There are already some 25 bank and building society accounts which can be used at post offices, and we hope there could be more in the future. I would encourage the remaining big banks to respond positively to the overtures from Post Office Ltd to make their current accounts accessible at post office branches.
Post Office Ltd. itself has already introduced one new savings account, and is developing other savings and banking products which are likely to be more attractive to many of its customers than the current Post Office card account.
We want people to continue to access their cash at the post office by using a bank account there or new post office products. We are working with Post Office Ltd to develop a joint strategy to move customers from the Post Office card account and with the best interests of our joint customers in mind.
Mr. Dunne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether employees of the Pensions Service are telephoning pensioners to persuade them to cease using their Post Office card accounts. [65882]
Mr. Plaskitt: No, employees of the Pension Service are not telephoning pensioners to dissuade them from using their Post Office card accounts.
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