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10 July 2006 : Column 1565W—continued
Action for Employment Ltd
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been paid to Action for Employment Ltd. in each month since they entered into a contract with his Department to encourage benefit recipients to switch from receiving benefit payment from cheque to direct payment. [80829]
Mr. Plaskitt: In order to protect the commercial position of the Department in negotiating future contracts of this nature, it is not policy to disclose the financial arrangements between the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the contractor.
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have switched their method of payment of benefits from cheque to direct payment after contact by Action for Employment Ltd., broken down by constituency. [80830]
Mr. Plaskitt: As a result of practical help and support provided by Action for Employment, 19,000 customers switched their method of payment from cheque to direct payment. Action for Employment helped many of these customers to open a bank account for the first time, making a significant contribution to financial inclusion, and supporting the Government’s aim to halve the number of households without bank accounts. We do not have a breakdown by constituency.
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on what basis Action for Employment Ltd. is paid by his Department for work in connection with encouraging benefit claimants to switch from benefit payment by cheque to direct payment. [80831]
Mr. Plaskitt:
Action for Employment Ltd. were paid by DWP to provide practical help and support to customers who expressed a wish to convert their method of payment from cheque to direct payment but
had difficulty in doing so. To provide best value for the taxpayer, Action for Employment Ltd. were paid a fee for each customer who was able to successfully change their method of payment from cheque to direct payment—including direct payment into a Post Office card account.
Agency Staff
Ms Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what average hourly rate was paid by his Department to each employment agency for staff employed through agencies in 2005-06. [81502]
Mrs. McGuire: This information is not held centrally and could be obtained only by incurring disproportionate cost.
Benefit Claimants
Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which local authorities had an increase in the number of (a) pensioners and (b) people claiming (i) jobseeker’s allowance and (ii) income support between 2001 and 2005. [81987]
Mr. Plaskitt: The available information has been placed in the Library.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many residents in (a) Yeovil constituency and (b) Somerset received (i) housing benefit and (ii) jobseeker's allowance in 2005-06. [82188]
Mr. Plaskitt: Housing benefit information is not available at parliamentary constituency level; the local authority information has been given instead. As at November 2005, there were 7,270 households in South Somerset district council, and 26,080 households in Somerset in receipt of housing benefit.
As at May 2006, there were 815 people in the Yeovil parliamentary constituency and 3,938 people in Somerset in receipt of jobseeker's allowance. The information is the most recent available for both benefits.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the take-up rate of council tax benefit was in (a) Yeovil constituency and (b) Somerset in each year since 1996-97; and how many pensioners (i) were entitled to and (ii) received council tax benefit in each year. [82189]
Mr. Plaskitt: Estimates of take-up and entitlement for council tax benefit are not available below national level; the latest available information is in “Income Related Benefits Estimates of Take Up in 2003-04”, a copy of which is in the Library.
Figures for the number of council tax benefit claimants are not available broken down by parliamentary constituency. Figures for pensioners in receipt of council tax benefit are not available prior to 2004. The available information is in the tables.:
| Council tax benefit recipients aged 60 and over | |
| Number of recipients | |
| Notes: 1. The data refer to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 2. Caseloads have been rounded to the nearest 10. 3. Council tax benefit totals exclude any second adult rebate cases. 4. ‘Aged 60 and over’ is defined as benefit units where the claimant and/or partner are aged 60 and over. Therefore figures will contain some claimants aged under 60 where there is a partner aged over 60 years. Source: Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System Quarterly 100 per cent. caseload stock-count taken in November 2004 and November 2005. | |
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the percentage of housing benefit claimants renting from private landlords who had benefit shortfalls in Yeovil constituency in each year since 1997-98. [82191]
Mr. Plaskitt: Information is not available at constituency level. The available information is in the table.
| Housing benefit private tenants( 1) whose weekly amount of housing benefit is less than their weekly eligible rent: South West Government Office Region, May 1997 to May 2004 | |||
| May | All housing benefit private tenants (thousand) | Of which have weekly amount of housing benefit less than their weekly eligible rent (thousand) | Percentage of housing benefit private tenants who have weekly amount of housing benefit less than their weekly eligible rent |
| (1 )Private tenants exclude registered social landlords. Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest thousand and percentages to one decimal place. 2. Figures are based on a 1 per cent sample and are therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation. 3. Housing benefit figures exclude any extended payment cases. 4. The data refer to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. Source: Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System, Annual 1 per cent. sample, taken in May 1997 to May 2004. | |||
Mr. Laws:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was spent on housing benefit for tenants in (a) council properties, (b) housing association property, (c) registered social landlords
property and (d) private sector housing in Yeovil constituency in each of the last five years. [82192]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available at constituency level. The available information is in the table.
| Housing benefit expenditure in South Somerset | |||
| Nominal terms in £ million | |||
| Council properties (rent rebates) | Housing association property and registered social landlord properties | Private sector housing | |
| Housing benefit expenditure in South Somerset | |||
| Real terms in £ million (2006-07) | |||
| Council properties (rent rebates) | Housing association property and registered social landlord properties | Private sector housing | |
| Notes: 1. The requested data are not available for Yeovil. However, data have been supplied in respect of South Somerset, which includes Yeovil, as the best alternative available. 2. As it is not possible to split the expenditure incurred on housing association and registered social landlord properties, a combined figure has been provided. As far as DWP is concerned, the two are synonymous. 3. All figures are in £ million, rounded to the nearest thousand pounds. 4. Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System Quarterly 100 per cent. data and caseload stock counts have been used to apportion rent allowance expenditure between housing association/registered social landlord property and private sector housing in the table. 5. Information has been supplied for five years beginning in 2000-01 because 2004-05 is the latest year for which outturn housing benefit expenditure is available. 6. Real terms expenditure has been calculated using Gross Domestic Product Deflators released by Her Majesty’s Treasury at Budget 2006. 7. The DWP Expenditure Tables, consistent with the Budget 2006 Report, are published at: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/expenditure.asp Source: Information has been sourced from local authority claims for housing revenue account subsidy and housing benefit and council tax benefit subsidy. | |||
Benefit Fraud
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what his latest estimate is of the fraud and error rate in (a) percentage terms and (b) cash terms in (i) attendance allowance, (ii) carer’s allowance, (iii) basic state pension, (iv) bereavement benefit, (v) industrial injuries benefit, (vi) maternity allowance, (vii) severe disablement allowance, (viii) social fund, (ix) widows benefit and (x) winter fuel payments; and if he will make a statement; [81630]
(2) what his latest estimate is of the monetary value of fraud and error in (a) income support, (b) incapacity benefit, (c) disability living allowance, (d) jobseeker’s allowance, (e) housing benefit, (f) pension credit, (g) council tax benefit, (h) basic state pension, (i) carer’s allowance and (j) attendance allowance; and if he will make a statement. [81632]
Mr. Plaskitt: The available information is in the following table.
| Estimates of fraud and error in DWP benefits | ||||||||
| Fraud | Customer error | Official error | Total fraud and error | |||||
| Benefit | £ million | Percentage | £ million | Percentage | £ million | Percentage | £ million | Percentage |
| Notes: 1. Monetary figures are estimates of annual overpayments rounded to the nearest £10 million. Figures in brackets are overpayments expressed as a proportion of expenditure for that benefit and are rounded to the nearest 0.1 per cent. They are based on sampling exercises and so are subject to sampling and other uncertainties. Sampling uncertainty is expressed in the form of confidence intervals—these have not been provided in these tables. 2. Carer’s allowance estimates from the 2004-05 DWP Resource Account. Fraud and error estimates from the 1996 National Benefit Review, uprated to 2004-05 expenditure. 3. State pension estimates from the 2004-05 DWP Resource Account. Fraud and customer estimates from the 1995 National Benefit Review, official error from April 2003 to March 2004, all uprated to 2004-05 expenditure. The conclusion of the more recent pilot National Benefit Review for 2005-06 was that a full review of state pension would not be carried out and another benefit should be measured instead. Results from this pilot have not been published but are available on request. 4. Widow’s benefit/bereavement benefit and severe disablement allowance are measured for official error every year. 5. No fraud and error figures comparable to those for other benefits are available for attendance allowance, industrial injuries benefit, maternity allowance, social fund and winter fuel payments. 6. Income support, jobseeker’s allowance and pension credit figures come from the National Statistics report “Fraud and error in income support, Jobseeker’s allowance and pension credit from April 2004 to March 2005: Full report”, published more recently than the 2004-05 DWP Resource Account. 7. Disability living allowance fraud and error figures come from the National Statistics report “Fraud, error and other incorrectness in disability living allowance” covering the period 2004-05. The ‘customer error’ overpayment figure includes around £580 million (7.9 per cent. of DLA expenditure) which was removed when reported in the Departmental Resource Account. These were cases where the change in customer’s needs may have been so gradual that it would be unreasonable to expect them to know at which point their entitlement to DLA might have changed. These cases do not result in a recoverable overpayment as we cannot quantify or define when the customer’s change occurred. Because legislation requires the Secretary of State to prove that entitlement to DLA is incorrect, rather than requiring the customer to inform us that their needs have changed, cases in this subcategory are legally correct. 8. Incapacity benefit estimates from the 2004-05 DWP Resource Account. Fraud and customer error estimates from April 2000 to March 2001, official error from April 2003 to March 2004, all uprated to 2004-05 expenditure. 9. Housing benefit estimates from the National Statistics report “Fraud and Error in housing benefit April 2002 to March 2005”. They are made up of reviews of around 85 per cent. of HB expenditure (used for measuring performance against the relevant PSA target to reduce fraud and error in HB) combined with more approximate estimates of error in the remaining 15 per cent. of expenditure. For further details on this, please see the relevant National Statistics reports. 10. Council tax benefit estimates from the 2004-05 DWP Resource Account. Council tax benefit has not been measured by the Department and was assumed to have the same levels of fraud and error as the latest housing benefit estimates available at the time (October 2003 to September 2004). 11. State pension estimates from the 2004-05 DWP Resource Account. Fraud and customer estimates from the 1995 National Benefit Review, official error from April 2003 to March 2004, all uprated to 2004-05 expenditure. The conclusion of the more recent pilot National Benefit Review for 2005-06 was that a full review of state pension would not be carried out and another benefit should be measured instead. Results from this pilot have not been published but are available on request. 12. Carer’s allowance estimates from the 2004-05 DWP Resource Account. Fraud and error estimates from the 1996 National Benefit Review, uprated to 2004-05 expenditure. 13. No fraud and error figures comparable to those for other benefits are available for attendance allowance. | ||||||||
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