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11 Dec 2006 : Column 721W—continued
Light Bulbs
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of light bulbs purchased by his Department in 2005 were of the compact fluorescent type. [102131]
Mrs. McGuire: As the majority of lighting on the Department’s estate is provided by functional fittings that use straight fluorescent tubes of varying lengths there is little scope to replace these with compact fluorescent.
Consequently, compact fluorescent bulbs represent 15 per cent. of those purchased.
Local Housing Allowance Pathfinders
Sarah McCarthy-Fry:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department is taking to implement the commitment given in the Welfare Reform Bill's Regulatory Impact Assessment that the Government will review the evaluation
findings from the Local Housing Allowance Pathfinders for under 25 year olds before finalising proposals for the regulations following from the Bill. [106137]
Mr. Jim Murphy: Before finalising the secondary legislation following from the Welfare Reform Bill, the Government will take account of all relevant research, including the final Local Housing Allowance Pathfinder evaluation, as well as the debates that will have taken place in the Commons and in the Lords.
However the majority of the Pathfinder evaluation reports were available, and considered, at Commons Committee stage of the Bill, where the Government confirmed that the commitment to the principles behind the benefit rules for under 25 year olds remains.
Ministerial Travel
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he has taken to offset the carbon dioxide emissions caused by ministerial travel in his Department. [102129]
Mrs. McGuire: All central Government ministerial and official air travel is being offset from 1 April 2006. Departmental aviation emissions are calculated on an annual basis and subsequently offset through payments to a central fund. The fund purchases Certified Emissions Reductions credits from energy efficiency and renewable energy projects with sustainable development benefits, in developing countries.
DWP has developed data collection systems to ensure that all aviation emissions are captured, enabling the Department to offset its carbon emissions caused by official air travel using the Government Carbon Offsetting Fund, details of which can be found on the climate change pages of the DEFRA website:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/carboncost/carbon-offsetting/index.htm
Pension Credit
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his estimate is of the proportion of the target group for the new personal pensions which will be entitled to pension credit in (a) 2040 and (b) 2050; and if he will make a statement. [103989]
James Purnell: The projections published in the White Paper “Security in Retirement: Towards a New Pensions System” do not model the effects of personal accounts. We will be publishing a White Paper on personal accounts shortly.
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioner households in City of York constituency receive pension credit; what the average value of pension credit of those households is; and how many pensioners live in those households. [106660]
James Purnell: 4,440 households in the City of York constituency were receiving pension credit as at August 2006, with an average weekly payment of £40.71.
Notes:
1. The figure provided is an early estimate. The preferred data source for figures supplied by DWP is the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS). However, the figure provided isthe latest available figure which is taken from the GMS scanat 1 September 2006. These are adjusted using the historical relationship between WPLS and GMS data to give an estimate of the final WPLS figure.
2. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the 2005 postcode directory.
3. Caseloads are rounded to the nearest 10.
4. Average weekly payments are shown as pounds per week and rounded to the nearest penny.
5. Households are those people who claim pension credit either for themselves only or on behalf of a household.
Source: DWP 100 per cent. data from the Generalised Matching Service (QMS) Pension Credit scan taken as at 1 September 2006.
Mr. Vaizey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many households in each ward of Wantage constituency are in receipt of pension credit. [106706]
James Purnell: The answer is in the following table.
| Households in receipt of pension credit in each ward of Wantage constituency—May 2006 | |
| Ward name | Households |
| Notes: 1. Caseloads are rounded to a multiple of five. 2. Only part of Appleton and Cumnor and Sunningwell and Wooton wards are in Wantage parliamentary constituency. 3. Because of 1. and 2., wards will not always sum to constituency totals. 4. Wards are based on 2003 ward boundaries. 5. Households recipients are those people who claim pension credit either for themselves only or on behalf of a household. Source: DWP 100 per cent. data: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study. | |
Pension Protection Fund
Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will amend the rules governing the Capping Regulations of the Pension Protection Fund to bring within the remit of the fund those people who took early retirement before April 2005; and if he will make a statement. [104489]
James Purnell: We have carefully considered the issues that have been raised by and on behalf of a number of early retirees, including whether to change the legislation which sets a cap on the compensation payable. We have taken particular account of the need for PPF compensation to balance fairness to scheme members, and remain affordable for pension schemes paying the PPF levy. We have concluded that changing the PPF compensation rules would advantage one group of scheme members compared to other groups, and could increase the cost of the PPF. We do not, therefore, propose to change PPF legislation at this time.
If a pension scheme enters the PPF, early retirees who took early retirement before April 2005 will be eligible for a 90 per cent. level of compensation, which is capped, as will the majority of people below their scheme’s normal pension age.
Pensioner Households (Bristol, East)
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioner households in Bristol, East constituency are receiving (a) pension credit and (b) pension savings credit; and what the(i) highest and (ii) average amount awarded is. [104267]
James Purnell: The requested information is below.
| Table 1: The number of households in receipt of Pension Credit by type in Bristol, East and the average weekly payments—May 2006 | ||
| Type of pension credit | Number of household recipients | Average weekly payments (£) |
| Notes: 1. The pension credit is made up of two elements, guarantee credit and savings credit. An individual can receive one or both guarantee credit and savings credit. 2. Caseloads are rounded to the nearest 10. Totals may not sum due to rounding. 3. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the 2005 postcode directory. 4. Household recipients are those people who claim pension credit either for themselves only or on behalf of a household. 5. Average weekly payments are shown as pounds per week and rounded to the nearest penny. Source: DWP 100 per cent. data: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study | ||
| Table 2: The highest award amounts for pension credit in Bristol, East—May 2006 | |
| Type of pension credit | £ |
| Source: DWP Information Directorate: five per cent. sample data | |
Pensions
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people were in receipt of the basic state pension in each quarter from the first quarter of 1990 to the third quarter of 2006; how many lived abroad in each period; and if he will make a statement. [102081]
James Purnell: The information requested is not available. Such information as is available is in the following table.
| GB total | Overseas total | |
| Notes: 1. Data are taken from 5 per cent. sample, therefore figures are subject to a degree of sampling variation. They are also adjusted to be consistent with the overall caseload from the WPLS. 2. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred. 3. No data for September 1998 are available. 4. Basic state pension data are not available prior to March 1995. Source: DWP Information Directorate | ||
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