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18 July 2006 : Column 389W—continued
Child Support Agency
Ian Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what arrangements the Child Support Agency has for ensuring the prompt payment of child support recovered by bailiffs to its outsourced finance handling company Liberata; [83837]
(2) what Liberata’s target is for the time taken to make payments collected from bailiffs to parents with care; and in what percentage of cases Liberata has met this target. [83842]
Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the Chief Executive. He will write to my hon. Friend with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 18 July 2006:
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 also asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what Liberata’s target is for the time taken to make payments collected from bailiffs to parents with care; and in what percentage of cases Liberata has met this target.
The Department of Work and Pensions contract with Liberata requires the Agency to utilise their services for the payment of invoices, court charges and some manual payments to clients.
Liberata do not deal with the payment of child support monies collected by a bailiff company. This is solely an Agency function.
I hope this information is helpful.
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what bonuses relating to performance were paid to staff managing the EDS contract at the Child Support Agency in each of the last four years for which figures are available. [77970]
Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Hilary Reynolds, dated 18 July 2006:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive. As he is out of the country, I am responding on his behalf.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what bonuses relating to performance were paid to staff managing the EDS contract at the Child Support Agency in each of the last four years for which figures are available.
All people employed by the Department for Work and Pensions may qualify for performance related pay. The performance related pay arrangements operate on a sliding scale with over 90% of employees receiving a payment at the end of the performance year.
In addition, the Department operates a “Special Bonus” scheme, which rewards employees for exceptional achievements outside the requirements of their key work objectives.
The table below shows special bonus payments paid to people involved in managing the EDS contract. However, managing the EDS contract forms only part of their roles and responsibilities.
These payments arose from when the new child support computer system went live in March 2003.
| Financial year | Amount of payment (£) |
I hope you find this response helpful.
Mrs. Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many Child Support Agency cases have been dealt with as clerical cases due to administrative errors on the part of his Department since January 2005. [81998]
Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the chief executive. He will write to my hon. Friend with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 18 July 2006:
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Child Support Agency cases have been dealt with as clerical cases due to administrative errors on the part of his Department since January 2005.
Cases are taken off the new computer system (CS2) and progressed clerically if a technical fault occurs and the case cannot be progressed on the system.
If an administrative error is found to have occurred, then Agency staff will look to resolve that error while the case is still being operated on CS2. The case would only be progressed clerically if a technical fault subsequently occurred.
The total volume of cases being clerically progressed in each month from March 2005 to March 2006 is available in table 19 of the latest edition of the Agency's Quarterly Summary of Statistics (QSS), a copy of which is available in the House library, as well as on the internet at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/csa.asp.
For convenience, these figures are attached.
I recognise that the figures given here differ from those given in response to PQ 21451. This is due to improvements in management information which now allows us to provide a more accurate picture of the Agency's clerical caseload.
I hope you find this helpful.
Correspondence
Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) when the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire on the assessment of student grants; [81931]
(2) when the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire on non-biological parents being assessed for the student grant loan of a biological child of their partner. [81956]
Mr. Plaskitt: The Department wrote to the hon. Member on 28 June advising him that the matters raised in his letter are the responsibility of the Department for Education and Skills, that his letter had been passed to that Department and that they would reply to the hon. Member directly.
Environmental Management
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether his Department (a) is committed to the achievement of environmental management to ISO 14001 standard and (b) has been externally certified as in compliance with that standard; and if he will make a statement. [81179]
Mr. Plaskitt: The Department is committed to the achievement of environmental management to ISO 14001 and has in place an environmental management system, based on this standard, which covers the Department and its agencies, business impacts, staff and buildings. An Environmental Management System certified to ISO 14001-2004 run by the Department's facilities management provider, Land Securities Trillium, covers the estates impacts of the Department.
In addition, Jobcentre Plus South East operates an Environmental Management System externally certified to ISO 14001 since 13 January 2004, covering 85 sites and 5,262 staff. The Health and Safety Executive, an executive agency for which the Department has responsibility, has an Environmental Management System certified to ISO 14001 that covers 38 sites.
The Department will continue to operate its Environmental Management Systems in line with the new sustainable operations targets that were launched on 12 June 2006.
Ethnic Minority Outreach
Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the merits of (a) provider and (b) Job Centre Plus-led ethnic minority outreach activities in Liverpool; and if he will make a statement. [73206]
Mr. Jim Murphy [holding answer 23 May 2006]: The Ethnic Minority Outreach (EMO) programme is delivered by private or voluntary and community sector providers on behalf of Jobcentre Plus. It is not, therefore, possible to assess the merits of Jobcentre Plus-led ethnic minority outreach activities in Liverpool, or elsewhere. We have, however, evaluated the programme nationally to assess the merits of voluntary/community sector-led EMO. These included:
success in engaging with ethnic minorities who otherwise may make little use of mainstream Jobcentre Plus services and in helping them into employment;
close links with the ethnic minority communities they are attempting to help;
specialist knowledge of the employment issues faced by people from ethnic minorities.
a highly personalised service and intense level of support;
working in ways which respected cultural sensitivities; and
provision available in the places where ethnic minority communities lived and socialised and in non-threatening and user-friendly venues.
Fuel Direct
Mark Lazarowicz: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many successful applications there were to each energy supplier for Fuel Direct for (a) gas and (b) electricity in (i) each region of England, (ii) Scotland and (iii) Wales in the last full year for which figures are available. [84380]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available in the format requested. A breakdown by supplier is not available. Information for the number of instances where Fuel Direct deductions were being made from income support, jobseeker’s allowance or pension credit claimants in each quarter during 2005 have been placed in the Library.
Household Incomes
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the (a) median and (b) mean household income was in each London borough in each of the last five years. [83677]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The data source does not allow us to provide robust income estimates below a regional level. Therefore we do not produce information for individual London boroughs.
Information is presented in the table for London as a whole. This is consistent with the latest publication of the ‘Households Below Average Income 1994-95 to 2004-05’.
The data are from Households Below Average Income (HBAI). The main source for HBAI is the Family Resources Survey (FRS).
| Money values for the median and mean of household income distribution in average 2004-05 prices: London | |||||
| £ per week equivalised | 1998-99 to 2000-01 | 1999-2000 to 2001-02 | 2000-01 to 2002-03 | 2001-02 to 2003-04 | 2002-03 to 2004-05 |
| Note: Figures are provided using three-year moving averages, as single-year estimates do not provide a robust guide to year on year changes. Hence, figures are not consistent with previously published single-year estimates and there may be differences in changes over time. Source: Family Resources Survey | |||||
Housing Benefits
Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of housing benefit claimants with non-dependant deductions who are (i) elderly and (ii) disabled. [85607]
Mr. Plaskitt: The most recent available information is in the following table:
| Housing benefit households with non-dependant deductions by client type: Great Britain: May 2004 | ||
| Number | Proportion of client type (Percentage) | |
| (1) Denotes nil or negligible. Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest thousand. 2. Figures are based on a 1 per cent. sample and are therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation. 3. HB figures exclude any extended payment cases. 4. The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 5 “disabled” means one of the disability premiums has been awarded. Source: Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System, Annual 1 per cent. sample, taken in May 2004. | ||
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