| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
7 Feb 2007 : Column 1048W—continued
Correspondence
Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire of 30 October 2006 about discrimination against deaf people. [109704]
Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 18 December 2006]: I replied to the hon. Member's letter on 18 December 2006. A copy of my reply has been sent separately to the hon. Member.
Disability Living Allowance
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many children with disabilities are in receipt of disability living allowance, broken down by component. [118644]
Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 5 February 2007]: As at 31 May 2006, the latest date for which figures are available, 289,680 children aged under 16 were receiving disability living allowance. Of those, 283,050 were receiving the care component and 190,730 were receiving the mobility component.
Source:
Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study, 100 per cent. data.
Disabled: Newcastle upon Tyne
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many claimants of (a) incapacity benefit, (b) severe disablement allowance and (c) disability living allowance there were in each ward of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne between May 2000 and May 2006. [118526]
Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 5 February 2007]: The information has been placed in the Library.
Employment Equality: Age Regulations
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what representations he has received from employers in (a) the private sector and (b) the public sector on the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations. [118781]
Jim Fitzpatrick: I have been asked to reply.
We have received representations from the Employers Forum on Age, the Association of British Insurers and Group Risk Development about insured benefits, and from the CBI on the occupational pensions provision of the regulations. We have also received representations from the Employers Forum on Age and the Engineering Employers Federation about redundancy schemes which do not fall within the exemptions contained in the age regulations. In addition the British Boxing Board of Control has made representations about age limits for licences for professional boxers. We have had no separate representation from public sector employers.
Financial Assistance Scheme
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been paid out by the Financial Assistance Scheme since its inception. [114780]
James Purnell: As at 5 January 2007, since its inception the Financial Assistance Scheme had paid out a total of £2,696,967.20 gross (£2,092,759.18 net) to 765 qualifying members. In addition payments will be made to a further 179 people when they reach age 65.
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what role the trustees of pension funds have in assisting people in accessing the Financial Assistance Scheme; and what advice his Department is making available to trustees about their role. [115034]
James Purnell: In accessing the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) the role of Trustees is to:
Provide the information required to notify the pension scheme to FAS and to supply the information necessary to determine whether the scheme qualifies.
For schemes that are winding-up, consider applying for initial payments and provide the necessary member data to assess eligibility
For wound up schemes, provide the necessary member data for annual payments to be assessed, or inform FAS who holds this information.
Keep members informed of progress.
The following guidance is made available for trustees
DWP Leaflet P2, sent to all Trustees in September 2004, provides an in depth guide for trustees and scheme professionals
The FAS website provides information, guidance and copies of the FAS legislation
FAS staff have undertaken a series of meetings with all interested trustees to explain the processes, answer any questions and discuss specific pension schemes.
Each scheme is allocated to a Customer Account Manager (CAM) who is available to give guidance to trustees by telephone or personal visit.
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the average time taken for applicants eligible for payments from the Financial Assistance Scheme to receive such payments following applications. [115035]
James Purnell: Before the Financial Assistance Scheme is able to start processing applications for individual scheme members, the pension scheme has to complete the Notification and Qualification processes. These involve the trustees and administrators providing basic scheme information to the FAS Operational Unit. They then have six months to provide data on individual members before a notice requiring provision of this information can be issued. As at 29 December 2006, the average time taken (since FAS operations started in September 2005) from first notification of a scheme to the date of the first payment to a member was 190 working days.
Within this period, the average time taken by the FAS Operational Unit from first receipt from the trustees or administrators of member data to the date of the first payment to a member of the scheme was 24 working days.
Housing
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what percentage of single claimants under 25 years old in the local housing allowance pathfinders face a shortfall between their eligible and contractual rents. [102112]
Mr. Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (Danny Alexander), on 10 January 2007, Official Report, column 643W.
Industrial Diseases Compensation
Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many claims were made in Wales under the compensation scheme for slate quarrymen in each of the last three years. [117945]
Mr. Jim Murphy [holding answer 1 February 2007]: There are no specific data available on the number of claims made in Wales by slate quarrymen under the Pneumoconiosis etc (Workers' Compensation) Act 1979.
The available information is in the table.
| All claims made in Wales under the Pneumoconiosis etc (Workers Compensation) Act 1979 | |
| Number of claims | |
Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many claimants there were of industrial injuries disablement benefit in (a) England, (b) Wales and (c) each Welsh parliamentary constituency in each of the last three years; and what percentage of the relevant working population each figure represents. [117944]
Mr. Jim Murphy [holding answer 1 February 2007]: Information on the number of industrial injuries disablement benefit cases in payment is not available at constituency level.
The available information is in the table.
| Industrial injuries disablement benefit cases in payment | ||||
| England | Wales | |||
| Number of cases in payment | Percentage of working age population | Number of cases in payment | Percentage of working age population | |
| Notes: 1. Figures are based on 100 per cent. data and exclude reduced earnings allowance cases. 2. Figures are taken at March each year and rounded to the nearest five. 3. The percentage of population has been calculated using mid-2005 population estimates. Working age has been defined as females aged 16 to 59 and males 16 to 64. Source: DWP Information Directorate | ||||
National Insurance Fund
Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what has been the annual loss to the National Insurance Fund from the reduction of employers’ contributions on the introduction of the aggregates levy and other environmental taxes; and what the yield of each of those was taxes in each year since their introduction. [118724]
Dawn Primarolo: I have been asked to reply.
The landfill tax, climate change levy and aggregates levy were introduced with offsetting cuts in employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs). The information requested is shown in the following tables.
Landfill tax was introduced with an offsetting 0.2 percentage point cut in the main rate of employer NICs from 1997-98. It is not possible to calculate the effects of the compensation for the landfill tax on employer NICs after 1999 due to structural changes to employers’ NICs.
| Climate change levy (CCL) revenue and value of 0.3 percentage point cut in employers’ NICs | ||
| £ million | ||
| CCL revenue( 1) | Approximate value of 0.3 pp cut in employers’ NICs( 2) | |
| (1 )On accruals basis. Based on CCL declared on trader returns (2 )Source: Based on HM Treasury Tax Ready Reckoner (3) Expected | ||
| Aggregates levy (AL) revenue and value of 0.1 percentage point cut in employers’ NICs | ||
| £ million | ||
| AL revenue( 1) | Approximate value of 0.1 pp cut in employers’ NICs( 2) | |
| (1 )On accruals basis. Based on AL declared on trader returns (2 )Source: Based on HM Treasury Tax Ready Reckoner (3) Expected | ||
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |