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9 Oct 2006 : Column 26W—continued
James Purnell: Our proposals for increasing state pension age are based on the current available evidence which, as we have said in the White Paper, we plan to review periodically. Whether the timetable for increasing state pension age remains appropriate will be a decision for the Government of the day when considering the evidence available at that time.
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the Pensions Commission's recommendation that contributions to personal accounts be capped at twice the default contribution for a median earner. [90436]
James Purnell: The Pensions Commission, in its second report, recommended an annual cap on contributions to personal accounts of around £3,000, so that any scheme complemented, rather than replaced, existing pension provision. As stated in the White Paper, the Government share that objective, and the proposal for a contribution cap is being analysed very carefully and discussed in detail with external stakeholders. We will bring forward our proposals later in the year.
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he will publish the review of research relevant to assessing the impact of the proposed National Pension Savings Scheme on household savings, which he commissioned from PricewaterhouseCoopers. [90439]
James Purnell: This research was published on 1 August 2006 in the Department's research report series (Review of research relevant to assessing the impact of the proposed National Pension Savings Scheme on household savings by John Hawksworth, PricewaterhouseCoopers, DWP research report No. 373).
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will publish the results of quantitative and qualitative research into employer attitudes to personal accounts undertaken by BMRB on behalf of his Department. [90440]
James Purnell: The results of qualitative research into employer attitudes to personal accounts, undertaken by BMRB Ltd. on behalf of the Department, were published on 1 August 2006 in “Employer attitudes to personal accounts: report of a qualitative study by Helen Marshall and Andrew Thomas, DWP Research Report No. 371”. Preliminary findings from the quantitative research into employer attitudes to personal accounts were published in the Government’s White Paper on pension reform, “Security in retirement: towards a new pensions system, May 2006”. The full results of this research will be published later in the year.
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what responsibilities he has in respect of public sector pension reform. [90480]
James Purnell: The Secretary of State does not have any responsibilities in respect of public service pension reform.
Personal Capability Assessment
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the outcome of the Department's review of the personal capability assessment. [91698]
Mrs. McGuire: The review of the personal capability assessment is ongoing. We are still considering the recommendations made in the report by the working groups reviewing the personal capability assessment process.
Post Office Card Account
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which benefits can be paid into a Post Office card account. [90470]
Mr. Plaskitt: The benefits and pensions administered by Department for Work and Pensions that can be paid into a Post Office card account are listed:
Attendance Allowance
Bereavement Benefit
Carer's Allowance
Child Maintenance
Christmas Bonus Payments
Cold Weather Payments
Disability Living Allowance
Incapacity Benefit
Income Support
Industrial Death Benefit
Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
Jobseeker's Allowance
Jobcentre Plus New Deal Payments
Jobcentre Plus Training Payments
Maternity Allowance
Pension Credit
Reduced Earnings Allowance
Severe Disablement Allowance
State Retirement Pension
Social Fund Payments
Widows Benefit
Winter Fuel Payments
Benefits and tax credits administered by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, Northern Ireland Social Security Agency (NISSA) and the Veteran’s Agency can also be paid into a Post Office card account.
Psychotherapeutic Counsellors
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of trained psychotherapeutic counsellors working in or in partnership with job centres. [89997]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. I have asked her to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 9 October 2006:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking what estimate he has made of the number of trained psychotherapeutic counsellors working in or in partnership with Jobcentres. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Jobcentre Plus does not directly employ staff to provide psychotherapeutic counselling. In Pathways to Work areas, Personal Advisers are able to refer their customers to a Condition Management Programme which can include access to psychological therapies. Although these services are funded by Jobcentre Plus, they are commissioned, and supplied, by local Primary Care Trusts. We are therefore not able to provide details of the number of staff involved.
In addition, Jobcentres have many local (non-contractual) partnerships with a variety of voluntary and community organisations that offer support to individuals on issues such as coping with life and substance or alcohol abuse. Although counselling is used by some of these organisations, we have no data on whether or not they specifically use trained psychotherapeutic counsellors.
Public Service Agreements
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what action he is taking in reducing timelags in the availability of data relevant to the Department's public service agreement targets. [91699]
Mrs. McGuire: The Department publishes full details of its Public Service Agreement targets, including how they are measured, twice a year in the Departmental Report and Autumn Performance Report, using the latest out-turn information. In many cases monitoring information is available with a lag of three months or less. For others, particularly where complex analysis is involved or firm data on outcomes may be delayed (for example, in areas involving medical events), reporting may take a year or longer. I am always seeking to improve timeliness but must balance this with the need for accuracy and to avoid significant revisions.
Rent Officers
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many training days have been provided to rent officers in each year for which figures are available; and at what cost to his Department. [90403]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is in the following table:
| Number of training days provided to rent officers in England and the related costs | ||
| Financial Year (1 April to 31 March) | Number of rent officer training days | Cost to DWP (£) |
| (1) The costs for 2003-04 fell to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister as the Rent Service did not transfer to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) until 1 April 2004. | ||
The Rent Officer Service in Wales is the responsibility of the Welsh Assembly. The Rent Registration Service in Scotland is part of the Scottish Executive. As such, no training costs would have been met by DWP.
Samuel Jones Pension Scheme
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the impact of the implementation of the Pensions Act 2004 on Samuel Jones pension scheme (in liquidation) members. [92004]
James Purnell: The financial assistance scheme, which was introduced through the Pensions Act 2004 to help some members of defined benefit pension schemes which wind up underfunded, is providing assistance to qualifying members of the Samuel Jones pension scheme.
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the cost of extending the financial assistance scheme to Samuel Jones pension scheme (in liquidation) members. [92002]
James Purnell: The Samuel Jones pension scheme is already a qualifying scheme for the financial assistance scheme. Following the review of the financial assistance scheme in May, assistance has been extended to qualifying members who were within 15 years of their scheme’s normal retirement age, or above, on 14 May 2004.
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will extend the financial assistance scheme in line with the recommendations from the parliamentary ombudsman to assist Samuel Jones pension scheme (in liquidation) members. [92003]
James Purnell: The Government do not accept the ombudsman’s recommendation that the Government should consider restoring full pensions to everyone who was a member of a scheme which wound up under-funded between January 1997 and April 2005. Given that the financial assistance scheme is funded by taxpayers, most of whom do not benefit from a defined benefit pension, we do not believe it would be appropriate or fair to extend the scheme to such an extent.
However, when reviewing the financial assistance scheme we naturally took account of the issues raised by the ombudsman. That review led to the extension of the financial assistance scheme and will give additional certainty to a large number of those who are facing significant loss as the result of the failure of theirpension scheme.
Social Fund
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many social fund applications from each county were processed in each of the six months before the centralisation in Bristol; and how many have been processed in each month since the centralisation. [88362]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. I have asked her to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking how many social fund applications from each county were processed in each of the six months before the centralisation in Bristol, and how many have been processed in each month since centralisation. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
As part of the national programme to centralise the processing of Social Fund applications, we are moving all the Social Fund processing work for the South West region to Bristol. The work is being moved in phases and different counties are at different stages of this process. It is envisaged that this work will be completed in 2007.
Social Fund payments encompass a variety of different types of payment, including Crisis Loans, Budgeting Loans, Community Care Grants, Funeral Payments and Sure Start Maternity Grants.
The following tables illustrate the movement of work to date and the number of claims processed in the months either side of the transfer to Bristol.
Whilst the tables show that the numbers of claims being processed initially fell immediately following the transfer of work, which has meant that some customers have experienced delays in receiving payments, I am pleased to report that this position has now recovered.
I hope this is helpful.
Number of Social Fund applications processed by county in the South West Region.
Cornwall
| Number of Social Fund applications processed for Cornwall customers since November 2005 | |
| Number | |
| Note: Social Fund work for Cornwall was transferred to Bristol from the end of April 2006. Bulk transfer of cases took place in August 2006 so no data available by county after the end of July as it is not possible to differentiate how many of these cases originated from Cornwall. | |
Devon
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