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2 Oct 2006 : Column 2580W—continued
Work and Pensions
Benefit Payments
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much (a) pension credit, (b) disability living allowance and (c) carer’s allowance was underpaid due to (a) fraud, (b) customer error and (c) official error in each year for which figures are available. [77990]
Mr. Plaskitt: Information is not available for carer's allowance. The available information is in the following table.
| Estimates of underpayments of pension credit and disability living allowance 2004-05 | ||||||||
| Fraud | Customer error | Official error | Total fraud and error | |||||
| £ million | Percentage | £ million | Percentage | £ million | Percentage | £ million | Percentage | |
| Notes: 1. Figures in brackets are underpayments expressed as a proportion of expenditure for that benefit. They are rounded to the nearest 0.1 per cent. 2. Pension credit estimates are rounded to the nearest £1 million, and disability living allowance estimates are rounded to the nearest £10 million (to be consistent with how they were originally published). 3. Estimates 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. 4. The methodology used does not capture underpayments due to an incorrect decision being made that the claimant was not entitled to benefit. Expenditure that would be paid out to people who have not applied to benefit they would be entitled to is not included as underpayments. 5. Pension credit was introduced in October 2003, so 2004-05 is the only complete year for which pension credit figures are currently available. 6. The most recent review for disability living allowance was carried out for 2004-05—estimates from this review are provided in this table. Results from the previous review in 1996 were carried out under a different methodology so are not considered comparable. | ||||||||
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much benefit was underpaid in income support to (a) lone parents and (b) disabled people in each year for which figures are available; and what amount was underpaid due to (i) fraud, (ii) customer error and (iii) official error in each year. [77992]
Mr. Plaskitt: The available information is in the following tables.
| Estimates of underpayments for income support lone parents | ||||||||
| Fraud | Customer error | Official error | Total fraud and error | |||||
| £ million | Percentage | £ million | Percentage | £ million | Percentage | £ million | Percentage | |
| Notes: 1. All figures are underpayments rounded to the nearest £1 million or nearest 0.1 per cent. of expenditure. 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. The methodology used does not capture underpayments due to an incorrect decision being made that the claimant was not entitled to benefit. Expenditure that would be paid out to people who have not applied to benefit they would be entitled to is not included as underpayments. 3. Figures are unavailable for disabled people in income support on their own. Figures presented here cover all income support claimants who are not lone parents (mostly disabled and sick claimants). 4. Figures earlier than 2001-02 were not published in the same format as they were produced from two separate samples—one for official error checks, and one for fraud and customer error checks. These have not been provided. | ||||||||
Child Support
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff are employed by the Child Support Agency; and how many were employed as of 1 July (a) 1997, (b) 2000 and (c) 2005. [83427]
Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive. He will write to the right hon. Member with the information requested.
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 asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff are employed by the Child Support Agency; and how many were employed as of 1st July (a) 1997 (b) 2000 and (c) 2005.
The information requested can be seen in the attached table.
I hope this information is helpful.
| Number of people employed by the Child Support Agency | |
| Date | Number of people in post( 1) |
| (1)
The figures provided show the actual number of people in post, some of
whom may be
part-time. (2) Data is not held for 1 July 1997. The figure provided is taken from the 1997-98 Annual Report and Accounts, which shows the average number of employees over the financial year using DATAVIEW method of counting. This method shows the actual numbers of people in post but excludes those on special leave without pay (including career break, maternity leave and other reasons). | |
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in what proportion of Child Support Agency cases (a) the non-resident parent is not paying maintenance and has no know current address and (b) a maintenance decision has not been made as the non-resident has not been traced. [87546]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information requested is not available.
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what conditions and requirements apply to existing (a) Child Support Agency (CSA) claimants and (b) parents making payments migrating to the new rules for CSA payments. [86569]
Mr. Plaskitt: Child Support legislation allows an old scheme case to transfer to the new scheme where there are prescribed links to a new scheme application. A prescribed link is one in which:
the non-resident parent or parent with care in a new scheme application is the non-resident parent or parent with care in an old scheme maintenance assessment; or
in benefit cases: where the partner of a non-resident parent in a new scheme application is a non-resident parent in an old scheme maintenance assessment; or
the partner of a parent with care in a new scheme application is a parent with care in an old scheme maintenance assessment.
Correspondence
Mr. Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will arrange for a reply to the letter dated 5 July 2006 to the Child Support Agency from the hon. Member for Walsall North, reference 1002609585. [90635]
Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 11 September 2006]: 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.
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he would arrange for a reply to the letter dated 5(th) July 2006 to the Child Support Agency from the hon. Member for Walsall North, reference 1002609585.
Jackie Laughton, Head of Client Relations for the Child Support Agency replied to your letter dated 5 July 2006 on 31 August 2006. For ease of reference I have sent copy of her recent letter to you separately and hope you found this response helpful.
Disability Equality
Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether he has made an assessment of which policy areas will be considered in his report on progress towards disability equality within the work and pensions policy sectors due to be published in December 2008. [90982]
Mrs. McGuire: All relevant areas of DWP policy will be considered in the report on progress. We will seek an assessment of progress from the principal authorities which deliver services funded or regulated by the Secretary of State including local authorities administering housing benefit, as well as the executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies of the Department for Work and Pensions.
To inform the report we will gather evidence from survey data, performance indicators and statistics and from further research.
Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps were taken to involve disabled people in the production of his Department's disability equality scheme. [90983]
Mrs. McGuire: My Department has involved disabled people and organisations representing disabled people in the production of its disability equality scheme. Officials in my Department invited seven major organisations (Leonard Cheshire Foundation, MENCAP, MIND, RADAR, RNIB, RNID, SCOPE) to help develop our disability equality scheme. DWP, at both a corporate and agency level, has used existing customer channels and specific events to consult individual customers and organisations, and has a representative from the Disability Rights Commission on its Equality Schemes Working Group. In relation to its employees, DWP has consulted them through internal communications, its staff network group and the departmental trade union.
Disability Living Allowance
Mr. Kemp: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many households in the Sunderland City Council area include a person with a learning disability who receives the care component of disability living allowance at the (a) highest, (b) middle and (c) lowest rate. [85422]
Mrs. McGuire: The administration of disability living allowance is a matter for the Chief Executive of the Disability and Carers Service, Mr. Terry Moran. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households in the Sunderland City Council area include a person with a learning disability who receives the care component of disability living allowance at the (a) highest (b) middle and (c) lowest rate.
The Minister for Disabled People, Anne McGuire MP, promised you a substantive reply from the Chief Executive of the Disability and Carers Service. In his absence, I am replying.
The information available is in the following table:
| Recipients of disability living allowance with learning difficulties by rate of care award as at November 2005 in the Sunderland local authority | |
| Care component | Number |
| Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Sunderland city
council is the same as Sunderland local authority. 3. Local
authorities are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant ONS
postcode directory. 4. Figures are based on the care component
condition only. 5. The number of claimants does not equate to
the number of households as there may be more than one person in a
household with learning difficulties claiming DLA. 6. Figures
include cases where the payment has been suspended, for example if they
are in hospital. Source: DWP Information
Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study 100 per cent.
Data. | |
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