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Pension Credit
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many residents in each electoral ward in Yeovil constituency receive pension credit. [83387]
James Purnell: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 10 July 2006, Official Report, column 1600W.
Pension Forecasts
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the annual cost of issuing pension forecasts. [80401]
James Purnell: The cost of administering and issuing pension forecasts during the year to March 2005 has been estimated at £15.3 million. This figure is an approximate assessment only.
The Department is currently refining its unit cost information in order to provide more robust and detailed financial analysis of the processing activities for which it is responsible. We are introducing a new resource management system this year and it will deliver more robust estimates in the future.
Pensioners (Carers Allowance)
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will grant pensioners who act as carers at home an allowance in addition to the state pension; and if he will make a statement. [84434]
James Purnell: Depending on their circumstances, all pensioners may be entitled to extra help from social security benefits on top of their state pension.
We have already changed the rules so that carers aged 65 or over can claim carer’s allowance. State pension and carer’s allowance are both income maintenance benefits. They are not payable at the same time because this would involve duplicate provision from public funds. However, where state pension is payable at less than the rate of carer’s allowance, an amount of carer’s allowance can be paid to make up the difference.
Lower income pensioners may receive pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit in addition to their state pension. As long as someone has an underlying entitlement to carer’s allowance, whether it is overlapped by state pension in full or in part, they may receive up to £26.35 a week extra from these benefits. More than 181,000 carers who receive pension credit are gaining from this provision.
There are no current plans to introduce any additional allowance in respect of pensioners who are also carers, or to change the policy on overlapping benefits in respect of carer’s allowance and state pension.
Roxby Pension Scheme
Mr. Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department is taking to ensure that members of the Roxby pension scheme receive their full pension entitlement. [72612]
James Purnell: The Roxby pension scheme has been determined as a qualifying scheme for the financial assistance scheme. The trustees have applied for initial payments and we are currently awaiting member data to enable us to start making initial payments to eligible members.
While the financial assistance scheme does not provide eligible members with their full pension entitlement, it can provide significant assistance to members of qualifying pension schemes. On 25 May 2006 as part of the White Paper, “Security in Retirement: towards a new pension system”, the Government announced that it will extend eligibility for the financial assistance scheme to members of qualifying pension schemes who were within 15 years of their scheme’s normal retirement age on 14 May 2004.
Those within seven years of their scheme’s normal retirement age on 14 May 2004 will benefit from the financial assistance scheme topping up their pensions to around 80 per cent. of their expected core pension. Those between seven and 15 years from their scheme’s normal retirement age, who can more reasonably be expected to supplement their retirement income, will be considered for a top-up to around 65 per cent. of their expected pension if they are between seven and 11 years from scheme pension age, and 50 per cent. between 12 and 15 years.
State Pension
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the annual cost to 2012 of restoring the earnings link for the basic state pension. [83072]
James Purnell: Our objective is to re-link the uprating of the basic state pension to earnings from 2012 or by the end of the next Parliament at the latest. A statement on the precise date will be made at the beginning of the next Parliament. The information requested is in the following table.
| Gross cost | Net cost | |
| Notes: 1. All figures are: based on earnings uprating from April 2007; in 2006-07 prices; in £ billion; rounded to the nearest £100 million; and for all UK and overseas pensioners; this is consistent with the presentation in the White Paper. 2. The net figures include the savings made from reduced income-related benefit expenditure and assume the guarantee element of pension credit is uprated in line with earnings; it does not include any increase in income tax revenues. The income-related benefit offsets are consistent with those in the White Paper. 3. These figures do not include any of the other policy changes included in the White Paper such as improved coverage of the basic state pension. | ||
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his estimate is of the cost of raising to a full pension the pension entitlement of all women with over 30 years’ but fewer than 39 years’ contributions. [85243]
James Purnell: The information requested can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Home Department
Animal Welfare
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list his Department’s (a) advisory bodies and (b) committees concerned with animal health and welfare; and if he will make a statement. [67179]
Joan Ryan: The Home Office has one advisory body concerned with animal health and welfare, the Animal Procedures Committee. The role of the Animal Procedures Committee is to advise the Home Secretary on matters concerned with the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and his functions under it. In doing so, the Committee is required to have regard to the legitimate requirements of science and industry and to the protection of animals against avoidable suffering and unnecessary use in scientific procedures. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has lead responsibility for other aspects of animal health and welfare.
Antisocial Behaviour
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 there have been for (a) noise, (b) graffiti and fly-posting and (c) waste and litter in (i) each local authority and (ii) each police authority, broken down by basic command unit, in each region of England and Wales in each year since the introduction of the powers. [83765]
Mr. McNulty: Data from the court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform showing the number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for selected offences related to antisocial behaviour are provided in the table A.
Noise is often one
of the symptoms of other antisocial behaviour and anecdotal evidence
suggests that a variety of other tools, such as warnings, ASBOs,
ABCs, parenting contracts and demotion of tenancy are used to tackle
perpetrators’ antisocial behaviour rather than a noise
prosecution. It is not possible to ascertain the number of individual
graffiti and fly-posting prosecutions because graffiti is recorded as
criminal damage and fly-posting is recorded as an illegal display of
advertisements. The penalty notice for disorder scheme was brought into
effect in all police forces in England and Wales during 2004. Under the
scheme the police are able to issue persons committing specified minor
offences with a fixed penalty notice, including the offence of
littering, which was added to the scheme on one November
2004.
No admission of guilt is required and payment of the penalty discharges all liability for the offence. Data showing the number of penalty notices for disorder issued in 2004 for the offence of littering broken down by police force area, as well as provisional data for 2005, is provided in table B. Data on prosecutions for 2005 will be available in the autumn .
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