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19 Feb 2007 : Column 350W—continued
Personal Capability Assessment
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) when the dummy runs of the revised personal capability assessment are to be conducted; and when the results will be published; [106309]
(2) when the second round of testing of the revised personal capability assessment is planned to begin; and when he expects to publish the results. [116401]
Mr. Jim Murphy: We carried out an initial, limited evaluation of the revised PCA descriptors and scores in October 2006 to test the hypothesis that the revised descriptors would accurately identify limited capability for work; and to enable us to begin drafting regulations. We plan to publish the report of this interim evaluation in February 2007.
The second round of testing of the revised personal capability assessment is scheduled to begin in March 2007 and is expected to take two to three months to complete. We will be publishing a report following the evaluation of the results.
Polygamous Marriages
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was paid in income-related benefits in respect of dependent spouses and children to claimants in polygamous marriages in each year since 1997-98; and if he will make a statement. [118803]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not recorded centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Public Sector Pensions
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions why the cash equivalent transfer value of the public sector pension of the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus increased between 2004-05 and 2005-06; and if he will make a statement. [101303]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The following table sets out the Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) of the public sector pension of the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus for 2004-05 and 2005-06.
| £000 | |
The CETV of pension schemes is linked to the value of the pension pot accumulated during the individual’s membership of the scheme. In May 2005 the postholder for the role of chief executive of Jobcentre Plus changed, and the successful candidate was promoted from within the civil service, following an external competition.
The length of service of the new postholder, and the increase in their salary on promotion, has led to the increase in the CETV when compared to the CETV for the previous chief executive in 2004-05.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what the cash equivalent transfer value is of the public sector pensions of the 10 highest paid staff within his Department; and if he will make a statement; [101304]
(2) what the cash equivalent transfer value is of the public sector pensions of the 10 highest paid members
of staff in his Department and its executive agencies; and if he will make a statement. [113803]
James Purnell: The cash equivalent transfer values of the pensions of DWP’s and its Executive Agencies’ 10 highest paid members of staff are published in the Annual Report and Resource Accounts.
Retirement Age
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the answer from the Parliamentary Secretary in the Cabinet Office to the hon. Member for Blackpool, South (Mr. Marsden) of 4 December 2006, Official Report, columns 189-90W, on the retirement age, what his Department’s policy is for the setting of retirement ages for staff below the senior civil service under the Civil Service (Management Functions) Act 1992. [108016]
James Purnell: The Department for Work and Pension has abolished its mandatory retirement age for all staff below senior civil service grades from 1 October 2006. The Department will assume staff wish to continue to work unless they tell us otherwise.
Sellafield: Accidents
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when the Health and Safety Executive expects to publish a report on its investigation into the leak at THORP facility at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant. [118367]
Mrs. McGuire: The Health and Safety Executive expects to publish the report on to the HSE website during the week commencing 19 February 2007.
Social Security Benefits: North East Region
Mrs. Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) Gateshead, East and Washington, West, (b) Tyne and Wear and (c) the North East Region have been receiving (i) incapacity benefit and (ii) jobseeker’s allowance for (A) under six months, (B) six months to one year, (C) one to two years and (D) over two years. [118534]
Mr. Plaskitt: The available information is in the following tables.
| Jobseeker’s allowance claimants in Gateshead, East and Washington, West parliamentary constituency, Tyne and Wear and Government office for the north-east region as at May 2006 | ||||
| Up to 6 months | 6 months to 1 year | 1 to 2 years | 2 years and over | |
| Notes: 1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest five. 2. Tyne and Wear comprises the local authority areas of Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and Sunderland. Source: 100 per cent. count of claimants of unemployment-related benefits, Jobcentre Plus Computer Systems (computer held cases only). | ||||
| Incapacity benefit and severe disablement allowance claimants in Gateshead, East and Washington, West parliamentary constituency, Tyne and Wear and Government office for the north-east region as at May 2006 | ||||
| Up to 6 months | 6 months to 1 year | 1 to 2 years | 2 years and over | |
| Notes: 1. Figures are shown rounded to the 10. Totals may not sum due to rounding. 2. ‘Claimant’ figures include all incapacity benefit (IB), severe disablement allowance and IB credits-only cases. 3. Tyne and Wear comprises the local authority areas of Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and Sunderland. Source: DWP Information Directorate, Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study 100 per cent. data. | ||||
State Retirement Pensions
Andrew Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 31 January 2007, Official Report, column 401W, on the state retirement pension, how many state retirement pension applications were waiting to be processed on 31 December for each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement. [121582]
James Purnell: The information is as follows:
| State pension applications registered on the system waiting to be processed | |
| Statistical period | Number |
Prior to 2005 the data are not robust enough to provide an accurate figure.
Welfare to Work
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how much has been budgeted for the review of welfare-to-work programmes being conducted by David Freud; when the review is expected to report back; and if he will make a statement; [117802]
(2) which (a) organisations and (b) individuals David Freud (i) has consulted and (ii) intends to consult in his review of welfare-to-work programmes; [117803]
(3) whether there will be an open consultation as part of the review of welfare-to-work programmes being conducted by David Freud; and if he will make a statement. [117804]
Mr. Jim Murphy: We have asked David Freud to conduct a review of welfare-to-work policy. We expect him to provide us with his conclusions within the next couple of months. There has been no specific budget set aside for this review, beyond the salary costs of the small team in the Department that is supporting his work. David Freud has been speaking to a number of organisations as part of his research for the review, and is also participating in a number of seminars organised by the Department. We would expect the list of organisations to be made public once the review has concluded.
David Freud's work forms part of a wider policy review process announced by the Prime Minister in autumn 2006. There will be no formal consultation at this stage as this is an independent review. Should we decide to move towards the implementation of any of his proposals, there would be a consultation in the normal way.
Winter Fuel Payments: North East Region
Mrs. Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) Gateshead East and Washington West and (b) Tyne and Wear have received winter fuel payments since 2005. [118533]
James Purnell: In the winter of 2005-06, 16,000 people in Gateshead East and Washington West constituency and 211,400 people in Tyne and Wear metropolitan county received a winter fuel payment. We expect the numbers to be similar for this winter.
Notes:
1. Figures rounded to the nearest 10.
2. Local authorities and parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant ONS postcode directory.
Source:
Information Directorate 100 per cent. sample.
Workless Households
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what progress has been made towards the Government’s targets for reducing (a) the number and (b) the proportion of children in workless households. [107539]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The Spending Review 2004 Public Service Agreement (PSA) Target 1b is to reduce the proportion of children living in workless households in Great Britain by 5 per cent. between the second quarter (Q2) of 2005 and Q2 2008. This is measured using the Household Labour Force Survey.
In 1997 the proportion of children who were living in a workless household was 18.7 per cent. The latest data for Q2 2006 shows that the proportion of children in workless households was 15.6 per cent.
To date the number of children in workless households (CIWHs) has fallen by 443,000 since Q2 1997. Meeting the SR04 target will require a further reduction in the proportion of CIWH to 14.9 per cent. by Q2 2008.
The target is measured using the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition of employment. Importantly there has been a move away from using the seasonal quarter HLFS over to using the new calendar quarter HLFS. This has resulted in a small change to our headline numbers previously published and our progress on the number of CIWH is assessed using Q2 figures rather than the old spring quarters from the HLFS.
Notes:
1. To be consistent with all other publications we are now using calendar quarters data from the LFS and are moving away from seasonal quarters.
2. All HLFS figures are from the HLFS Q2 dataset.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what percentage of children lived in workless households in Lancashire in (a) 1997 and (b) 2006; and what percentage of children lived in workless households with (i) a lone parent, (ii) at least one parent claiming incapacity benefit and (iii) at least one parent claiming an income-related social security benefit in that period. [117188]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The available information is in the table.
To measure progress relating to children in workless households (CIWH), the Department uses the Household Labour Force Survey. However it is not possible to disaggregate this data below Government Office Region.
The information in the following table uses administrative data to provide the number and proportions of children dependent on workless benefits in Lancashire local authority. Data is not held for 1997 so 2004 has been added for comparison.
The official definition of a CIWH is a child aged under 16 in a working age household where no adult works. The administrative data is an inexact proxy for this as it charts all children under 16 in a working age household who have at least one parent claiming workless benefits.
The administrative data fails to incorporate in its definition workless adults who do not claim benefits. It also differs from the standard CIWH definition in that it includes children in households with both working and non-working adults, as opposed to a household with no working adults.
The information on those claiming an income-related social security benefit is not available.
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