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CSA
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent assessment he has made of progress against the targets in the Child Support Agency business plan; and if he will make a statement. [107077]
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.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of progress made against the targets in the Child Support Agency business plan; and if he will make a statement.
The Child Support Agency has six targets set by the Secretary of State for 2006/07, which were published in the Agency's Business Plan, a copy of which is available in the House of Commons Library, or on the internet via the following link:
www.csa.gov.uk/pdf/english/reports/plan0607.pdf.
It should be noted that there was an error in the published definition of the debt target, which incorrectly stated that the performance level of 40 per cent should be achieved over the financial year 2006/07 as opposed to the quarter ending March 2007, as was originally intended. The correct definition of this target is, therefore, that: "The Agency will collect arrears equivalent to 40 per cent of the amount accruing due to non-payment of regular maintenance between 1 January 2007 and 31 March 2007."
The Agency's latest performance against these targets was published in tables 2.1, 3, 7.2, 8.1,12, and 17 of the September 2006 Child Support Agency Quarterly Summary Statistics, a copy of which is available in the House of Commons Library, or on the internet via the following link:
www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/child_support/csa_quarterly_sep06.asp.
The correction to the debt target definition was also made in this publication.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Departmental Call Centres
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations reports have been submitted by call centres owned or operated by his Department. [102608]
Mrs. McGuire: As incidents are handled locally only limited information is available centrally and it is not always possible to identify whether reports relate to contact centre staff. The Disability and Carers Service Health and Safety Team are aware of one report submitted to them within the last two years. The Jobcentre Plus Contact Centre Directorate are aware of nine reportable accidents and 10 acoustic shock incidents in the last two years.
Departmental Database
Mr. Ian Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he is taking to ensure that his Department's database contains benefit claimants' full and correct addresses. [107254]
Mrs. McGuire: The Department has a wide range of processes in place to ensure that it holds benefit claimants' full and correct addresses.
At the outset of a claim for benefit steps are taken to confirm that the address provided exists and is correct, by matching the details provided with historical data held within the Department. Decision notices issued when entitlement is established, and annual award notices issued when benefit rates change include written reminders of the need for customers to notify changes of address. In addition to this when it is known that an address is out of date and the customer is in receipt of benefit, steps are taken to obtain the correct address details.
If an address could not be traced banks would be contacted to suspend payments and data matching takes place with organisations such as Royal Mail re-direct. Change of address details notified to one part
of the Department are shared with other agencies within the Department through cross-benefit computer systems. These systems also hold addresses from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), where many customers in receipt of child benefit, child tax credits and new tax credits are also customers of this Department.
The Department has a dedicated team, who are responsible for the quality and integrity of personal details data held within the Customer Databases Programme, and is constantly seeking new ways of maintaining all personal data, including up to date addresses. In order to maintain correct address details and up to date postcodes, the Post Office Address File is run against the DWP Customer Databases on a quarterly basis.
Work is currently under way with HMRC on a project set up to examine taxpayer's out of date address data, which is then checked through Post Office Redirect and credit reference data, with any new addresses found notified from HMRC to DWP. There are safeguards in place to ensure that correct addresses for customers in receipt of benefit are not overwritten by this data without confirmation that the individual has moved.
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much (a) his Department and (b) the agencies for which he has responsibility spent on redundancy payments (i) in each of the last 24
months for which figures are available and (ii) in each year since 1997. [105809]
Mrs. McGuire: The Department for Work and Pensions was formed in June 2001 from the Department of Social Security and parts of the former Department for Education and Employment, including the Employment Service. All figures shown prior to financial year 2001-02 relate only to the former Department of Social Security.
Amounts spent by the Department on staff exit schemes since 1997-98 are set out in the following table. This includes all staff released from the Department on early release schemes and staff released under Inefficiency Dismissal with Compensation.
| £ million | |
An analysis of the amounts spent by individual agency is only available since the formation of the Department for Work and Pensions in 2001-02. Figures are set out in the following table.
| £ million | ||||||
| Business | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | Total |
| n/a = The Agency did not exist in the Department in the year in question. Notes: 1. A proportion of the ongoing annual pension payments for early retirement cases are held centrally and included in the departmental corporate units’ line from 2004-05 and 2005-06. 2. The figures do not include the provisions made in the accounts for costs associated with staff approved for early release in 2006-07 |
A monthly breakdown of the amounts spent by individual Agencies in financial years 2004-05 and 2005-06 is set out in the following table.
The negative figures in the Departmental Corporate Units line represent internal accounting adjustments in respect of lump sum recharges to the appropriate business units.
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