House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 24 Apr 2007 (pt 0017)

24 Apr 2007 : Column 1082W—continued

Other benefit fraud

Benefit fraud MVA not including MVA from instrument of payment fraud and general matching service fraud is as shown in the following table.

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	Benefit fraud MVA (£)
1999-2000	6,561,497
2000-01	5,771,922
2001-02	5,720,786
2002-03	5,167,365
2003-04	5,095,564
2004-05	5,190,263
2005-06	5,104,595

Big Brother Project

David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what the Department’s projected allocation to the Big Brother project is for the next five years; [129999]

(2) how much the Department has spent on the Big Brother project for single unemployed parents since the project’s inception. [130000]

Mr. Jim Murphy: The information requested is not available centrally as the Department does not make allocations to that level of detail and can therefore be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Children: Maintenance

Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what targets the Government have in relation to parents with care in receipt of benefits receiving no maintenance; and if he will make a statement. [122891]

Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the chief executive. He will write to the right hon. Member with the information requested.

Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 24 April 2007:

In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.

You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what targets the Government has in relation to parents with care in receipt of benefits receiving no maintenance; and if he will make a statement. [122891]

Parents with care in receipt of benefit represent a large proportion of the Agency’s caseload. As such, all the Agency’s targets relate to them. However, the Agency has two targets that specifically cover parents with care in receipt of benefits:

The DWP Public Service Agreement (PSA) Target “to increase the proportion of parents with care on income support or income-based Jobseeker’s allowance who receive maintenance for their children to 65% in march 2008”.

The maintenance outcome target as published in the Child Support Agency Business Plan 2006/07—“By March 2007, in 65 per cent. of cases across both the new and old schemes in which a liability to pay maintenance exists, the non-resident parent has either made a payment via the collection service or a Maintenance Direct arrangement is in place. In addition, further ensuring that at least this level of performance is achieved for those new scheme cases in which the parent with care is on Income Support of income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance”.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

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Community Care Grants

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many applications for community care grants have taken (a) under one week, (b) between one and two weeks, (c) between two and three weeks, (d) between four and five weeks and (e) over five weeks to process since January 2006; [125586]

(2) how many applications for budgeting loans have taken (a) under one week, (b) between one and two weeks, (c) between two and three weeks, (d) between four and five weeks and (e) over five weeks to process since January 2006. [125685]

Mr. Jim Murphy: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. I have asked her to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.

Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 24 April 2007:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions asking how many applications for Community Care Grants and Budgeting Loans have taken (a) under one week, (b) between one and two weeks, (c) between two and three weeks, (d) between four and five weeks, and (e) over five weeks to process since January 2006. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.

The clearance time for an individual application is measured in whole working days from the date the application is received to the date the decision is taken (on whether to make a Community Care Grant award or a Budgeting Loan offer), plus, if a Budgeting Loan offer is made, the number of whole working days between receiving the applicant's reply to the offer and the recording of that reply.

The information requested is in the table.

Number of applications cleared from January 2006 to January 2007 inclusive in Great Britain
Working days to clear	Community care grants	Budgeting loans
Less than 5	184,200	1,449,300
5 to 10 inclusive	257,200	311,300
11 to 15 inclusive	106,500	47,600
16 to 20 inclusive	49,200	10,000
21 to 25 inclusive	20,500	2,400
More than 25	21,400	2,900
Source: DWP Social Fund Policy, Budget and Management Information System.

I hope this is helpful.

Departments: Sick Leave

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many working days were lost (a) in his Department and (b) in agencies reporting to his Department due to sickness and injury in 2006. [126081]

Mrs. McGuire: The available information is contained in the following table. It was obtained from the computer systems managers use to record absences.

Separate information on sickness absence and absences recorded as injury for November and December, is temporarily unavailable. This is due to a change in the Department’s computer system.

Absences relating to injury are recorded against a category of ‘Injury and Poisoning’. This includes, for
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example, the toxic effects of alcohol or drugs, any surgical procedures, and road traffic accidents. It is not possible separately to identify cases relating to injuries.

The Appeals Service transferred out of the DWP on 31 March 2006 and their absence information is included until this date.

	Working days lost
Business	Sickness	I njury/poisoning
Jobcentre Plus	589,561	75,322
Pension Service	93,387	18,237
Child Support Agency	104,758	17,611
Corporate Centre	73,633	13,234
Disability and Carers Service	47,741	9,846
Appeals Service	1,627	173
DWP overall	910,707	134,423

Disability and Carers Service: Pay

Mr. Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what bonus system is in place for Disability and Carers Service staff. [127534]

Mrs. McGuire: Information concerning Disability and Carers Service staff is a matter for their Chief Executive, Mr. Terry Moran. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.

Letter from Vivien Hopkins, dated 24 April 2007:

You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what bonus system is in place for Disability and Carers Service staff.

The Minister for Disabled People, Anne McGuire MP, promised you a substantive reply from the Chief Executive of the Disability and Carers Service. In his absence, I am replying.

DWP operates an individual performance bonus scheme for employees in all of its Businesses including the Disability and Carers Service. Non-consolidated bonus payments are awarded to employees on the basis of their individual performance, which is assessed as part of the Departmental Performance and Development system. Individual performance bonuses are paid after the completion of the performance year.

In addition to this, DWP have also paid team bonuses to selected units within the Department. No team bonus schemes have run since 2004/2005.

Teams and individuals may also be entitled to modest Special Bonus payments in recognition of particular pieces of exceptional work. These payments can be made at any time at the discretion of the local manager either as cash amounts or in the form of a high street voucher.

I trust this is helpful.

Disability Living Allowance

Mr. Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when the forms issued by his Department for disability living allowance claims were last amended; and what the reasons were for these amendments. [127445]

Mrs. McGuire: The administration of disability living allowance is a matter for the chief executive of the disability and carers service, Mr. Terry Moran. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.

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Letter from Terry Moran, dated 24 April 2007:

You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the forms issued by his Department for disability living allowance claims were last amended; and what the reasons were for these amendments.

The Minister for Disabled People, Anne McGuire MP, promised you a substantive reply from the Chief Executive of the Disability and Carers Service. The Disability Living Allowance claim forms, DLA1 Child, DLA1A Child, DLA434 Child, DLA434 Adult, DLA300, were last amended in February 2007. They were available with effect from 19 February 2007.

The amendments were made as part of the ongoing maintenance of claim forms. The changes involved were relatively minor and included asking for the nationality of the parent/guardian; updating the Inland Revenue website address; leaflet titles and the method of payment wording; adding the opening times for “Contact a Family”; a statement to make it clear that GPs are not part of the decision making process; and improving the information to customers claiming under special rules and for customers in hospital or other accommodation. This list is not exhaustive.

Additionally the DLA1 Adult and the DLA1A Adult claim forms were last amended in December 2005 when the civil partnership came into force. There was a minor update to these forms in June 2006 to clarify the information for customers who are claiming under the special rules.

The DLA Adult claim forms have been given a new look and will be introduced at the end of April 2007. These new look claim forms have received a Crystal Mark.

I hope this is helpful.

Helplines

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the (a) average speed of response to calls and (b) proportion of failed calls was for each helpline operated by or on behalf of his Department in each year since 1997. [116584]

Mrs. McGuire: The information that is available is shown in the table. Information is not available for any DWP helpline prior to 2000-01.

Certain helplines do not collate or have information available on average speed of answering calls. The data provided for these helplines (x per cent. of calls answered in y seconds) is the closest comparable indicator.

Failed calls are those that are not presented to the contact centre due to technical reasons, such as system failures.

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DWP helpline	Year	Average speed of answer in seconds	Proportion of failed calls (percentage)
CSA⁽¹⁾	2002-03	56	12
	2003-04	135	13
	2004-05	100	4
	2005-06	59	2
	2006-07⁽²⁾	27	2

DCS helpline⁽³⁾	2000-01	23 per cent. in 30 seconds	—
	2001-02	18 per cent. in 30 seconds	—
	2002-03	17 per cent. in 30 seconds	—
	2003-04	26 per cent. in 30 seconds	—
	2004-05	37 per cent. in 30 seconds	—
	2005-06	82	0.4
	2006-07⁽²⁾	85	0.5

Benefit Inquiry Line⁽³⁾	2000-01	93 per cent. in 60 seconds	—
	2001-02	88 per cent. in 60 seconds	—
	2002-03	59 per cent. in 30 seconds	—
	2003-04	48 per cent. in 30 seconds	—
	2004-05	31 per cent. in 30 seconds	—
	2005-06	137	—
	2006-07⁽²⁾	34	0.4

Jobcentre Plus Direct—First Contact⁽⁴⁾	2004-05	66 per cent. in 20 seconds	—
	2005-06	64 per cent. in 20 seconds	—
	2006-07⁽²⁾	76 per cent. in 20 seconds	—

Jobcentre Plus Direct—Jobseeker Direct⁽⁴⁾	2004-05	51 per cent. in 20 seconds	—
	2005-06	74 per cent. in 20 seconds	—
	2006-07⁽²⁾	84 per cent. in 20 seconds	—

Jobcentre Plus Direct—Employer Direct⁽⁴⁾	2003-04	80 per cent. in 20 seconds	—
	2004-05	82 per cent. in 20 seconds	—
	2005-06	85 per cent. in 20 seconds	—
	2006-07⁽²⁾	90 per cent. in 20 seconds	—

Jobcentre Plus Direct—NiNO Allocations⁽⁴⁾	2005-06	80 per cent. in 20 seconds	—
	2006-07⁽²⁾	87 per cent. in 20 seconds	—

Jobcentre Plus Direct-National Benefit Fraud Hotline⁽⁴⁾	2004-05	71 per cent. in 3 seconds	—
	2005-06	78 per cent. in 3 seconds	—
	2006-07⁽²⁾	96 per cent. in 20 seconds	—

Pension Centres⁽⁵⁾	2004-05	—	1.1
	2005-06	81 per cent. in 30 seconds	0.7
	2006-07⁽²⁾	84 per cent. in 30 seconds	0.7

Future Pension Centre⁽⁵⁾	2004-05	—	0.4
	2005-06	49 per cent. in 30 seconds	0.1
	2006-07⁽²⁾	55 per cent. in 30 seconds	0

International Pension Centre⁽⁵⁾	2004-05	—	0.1
	2005-06	66 per cent. in 30 seconds	0
	2006-07⁽²⁾	70 per cent. in 30 seconds	0

Pension Credit Application Line⁽⁵⁾	2003-04⁽⁶⁾	94 per cent. in 30 seconds	—
	2004-05	87 per cent. in 30 seconds	2.3
	2005-06	78 per cent. in 30 seconds	1.1
	2006-07⁽²⁾	90 per cent. in 30 seconds	0.6

Pensions Guide Orderline⁽⁵⁾	2005-06	91 per cent. in 30 seconds	0
	2006-07⁽²⁾	88 per cent. in 30 seconds	0

Pensions Information Orderline⁽⁵⁾	2004-05	—	4.6
	2005-06	85 per cent. in 30 seconds	2.5
	2006-07⁽²⁾	89 per cent. in 30 seconds	1

Pensions Direct⁽⁵⁾	2004-05	—	0
	2005-06	72 per cent. in 30 seconds	0.6
	2006-07⁽²⁾	83 per cent. in 30 seconds	0

Reinstatement of Deficiency Notice Project^(5,7)	2004-05	—	0
	2005-06	82 per cent. in 30 seconds	0
	2006-07⁽²⁾	94 per cent. in 30 seconds	0.8

Retirement Pension Tele Claims⁽⁵⁾	2004-05	—	0
	2005-06	82 per cent. in 30 seconds	1
	2006-07⁽²⁾	80 per cent. in 30 seconds	1

Winter Fuel⁽⁵⁾	2004-05	—	4.5
	2005-06	71 per cent. in 30 seconds	0.1
	2006-07⁽²⁾	86 per cent. in 30 seconds	0
⁽¹⁾ CSA does not hold sufficiently robust information prior to 2002. ⁽²⁾ Figures for April 2006 to December 2006. ⁽³⁾ DCS Helpline and Benefit Inquiry Line does not hold information on failed calls prior to 2005. ⁽⁴⁾ Jobcentre Plus Direct do not collate information centrally on failed calls due to technical reasons. First Contact Service went live in June 2004. Nino Allocations Service went live in October 2005. Prior to 2004-05 the telephony systems were not advanced enough to provide service level data. ⁽⁵⁾ The Pension Service was launched in April 2002 and the majority of helplines were fully operational by August 2003. Robust data on the percentage of calls answered within 30 seconds is available for most helplines from September 2005. ⁽⁶⁾ Data for period September 2003 to March 2004, as PCAL did not become fully operational until September 2003. ⁽⁷⁾ Helpline started taking calls from November 2004.

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