| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
19 Dec 2006 : Column 1996W—continued
Expatriate Pensions
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners living overseas have not had their pensions uprated annually in each year since 1976-77, broken down by country; what plans he has to change this policy; and if he will make a statement. [102250]
James Purnell: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available has been placed in the Library. We have no plans to change the current arrangements on uprating state pension overseas.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the Government’s policy is on uprating pensions of UK citizens who take-up residence overseas; what the policy will be on pensioners living overseas when the link to earnings is restored; and if he will make a statement. [102251]
James Purnell: The UK State Pension is payable in all countries abroad to those who are entitled to it. It is uprated in the same way for UK pensioners living overseas where there is a reciprocal social security agreement or a legal requirement to do so. We have no plans to change these arrangements.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what criteria need to be met to enable a reciprocal agreement to be in place between the United Kingdom and another country to allow for the pensions of British expatriates who live in that country to be uprated fully each year. [102057]
James Purnell: Where a person is living outside the UK, the state pension is uprated if there is a legal requirement or a reciprocal agreement to do so.
The primary purpose of reciprocal social security agreements is to provide a measure of coordination between social security schemes to protect the social security of workers moving between the two countries during their working lives. They avoid the duplication of payments of social security contributions and most make provisions for uprating of UK pensions.
The last reciprocal agreement is over 25 years old. There are a number of factors, for example, the numbers of people moving between the UK and the other country, the benefits available under the other country's scheme and the compatibility of the social security systems, which determine whether a reciprocal social security agreement is entered into with another country. There are therefore no set criteria.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with which countries the United Kingdom has a reciprocal agreement on the annual uprating of British expatriate pensions. [102058]
James Purnell: Under bilateral social security agreements, annual upratings of State Pensions are payable to pensioners living in the following countries: Barbados; Bermuda; Guernsey; Israel; Jamaica; Jersey; Mauritius; the Philippines; Turkey; the United States of America and the now separate republics of the former Yugoslavia that are not EU Member States (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the State Union of Serbia-Montenegro and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).
Financial Assistance Scheme
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been spent on (a) administration and (b) legal fees for the Financial Assistance Scheme in each month since its inception; and if he will make a statement. [102159]
James Purnell: The Financial Assistance Scheme was announced in May 2004. Monthly information on expenditure is not available in a comparative form covering the whole period. Total expenditure on administration in 2004-05 was £1.06 million and in 2005-06 £4.73 million. One off legal fees of £2,089 arose in March 2005. In 2006-07 expenditure to the end of October totalled £1.74 million and a monthly breakdown is as follows:
| Current financial year 2006-07 | £ |
Incapacity Benefit
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average duration of an incapacity benefit claim was in each year since 1997. [101743]
Mrs. McGuire: The information is not available. Although data are held on actual durations at a specific point in time, it is not possible to calculate average durations from these data.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many women were in receipt of incapacity related benefits in each year since 1976-77. [102212]
Mrs. McGuire: The available information is in the tables. Due to changes in the benefits available, figures are not directly comparable over time.
IT Projects
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which web-related information technology projects have cost his Department more than £50,000 since 2001; how many qualified tender proposals there were for each project; and which company was awarded each contract. [102138]
James Purnell: The Department for Work and Pensions undertakes a large number of projects which deliver business change and policy initiatives. Many projects will include web-related technology available to the public. The following table includes only those projects where the web-enabled IT element is such that non-delivery of the IT would significantly damage the project’ s ability to deliver its intended results.
The following table summarises the web-related projects undertaken by DWP, the number of qualified tender proposals and the supplier awarded the contract in each case.
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many questions for written answer from (a) the hon. Member for Yeovil and (b) other hon. Members have been colour-coded red by his Department since the traffic light system was introduced; and if he will make a statement. [102305]
Mrs. McGuire: As there is no formal departmental monitoring system in place related to the trialling of the new system of colour coding, the information is not available.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many questions for written answer from hon. Members in the last parliamentary session were not answered by 8 November 2006; how many and what proportion of these were colour-coded (a) green, (b) amber and (c) red; and if he will make a statement. [102306]
Mrs. McGuire: Of the 5,187 questions tabled for substantive answer in the 2005-06 session, 121 had not received a response by prorogation.
As there is no formal departmental monitoring system in place related to the trialling of the new system of colour coding, the further information requested is not available.
Mr. Laws:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he introduced a traffic light colour-coding system for dealing with questions for
written answer; for what reasons this system was introduced; what proportion of such questions have been coded as (a) red, (b) amber and (c) green since the new system was introduced; and if he will make a statement. [102307]
Mrs. McGuire: The Department began trialling in October of this year an informal colour-coding system to identify questions of which press office should be made aware, and for which Ministers wish separate media briefing to be developed. As there is no formal departmental monitoring system in place related to the trialling, the information on numbers is not available.
Pensions
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether an estimate has been made of the net cost of compensating those identified in the Ombudsman’s report “Trusting in the Pensions Promise” taking into account the resulting reduction in (a) pension credit, (b) council tax benefit and (c) housing benefit payable to those compensated. [102121]
James Purnell: No reliable estimate can be made. We have estimated the cost of replacing in full the lost pensions for those covered by the Ombudsman’s report as £15 billion cash, over 60 years and around £3 billion in NPV. This is, as we have always made clear, the gross cost, taking no account of any possible savings from a reduction in the payment of income-related benefits or any possible increase in tax income. The length of time over which payments would be made make it difficult to estimate what the cost would be after these adjustments, as this would depend on the income distribution of people affected, the tax brackets they are in and their benefit entitlements.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will disaggregate the cost of basic state pension reforms, as shown in figure 9 of the Pensions White Paper, Security in Retirement: Towards a New Pension System, to show (a) the gross cost of saving from increasing the basic state pension in line with earnings from 2012 on existing qualifying criteria, (b) the net cost of increasing the basic state pension in line with earnings from 2012 on existing qualifying criteria, (c) the changes to qualifying criteria and (d) the changes to adult dependency increases proposed in the White Paper. [102151]
James Purnell: Under our reforms, more people will be receiving state pensions based on their National Insurance records, and there will be a more generous basic state pension due to the restoration of the earnings link. This provides a solid foundation for private saving. The guarantee credit will continue to provide a safety net and reforms to the savings credit will reduce the spread of means testing and support the savings incentives that are an integral part of the reform package.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |