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8 May 2007 : Column 179W—continued
Social Security Benefits: Care Homes
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which means tested benefits people resident in residential care homes are eligible to claim. [135325]
Mr. Plaskitt: People in care homes can claim income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance or pension credit; entitlement to these benefits will depend on their individual circumstances. There is a more generous capital disregard for all these benefits for claimants living in care homes.
Except for a few claimants with preserved rights, housing benefit is not available to care home residents.
As care home residents do not have a council tax liability they have no entitlement to council tax benefit.
Social Security Benefits: Expenditure
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total welfare expenditure was, including tax credits, in the financial years (a) 1991-92, (b) 1996-97, (c) 2001-02 and (d) 2006-07; and what the (i) actual and (ii) percentage change in expenditure was between each of those years. [136109]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information requested is in the two tables as follows.
| Table l: Total welfare expenditure (excluding tax credits) | ||||
| £ million | ||||
| Financial years | ||||
| (a) 1991-92 | (b) 1996-97 | (c) 2001-02 | (d) 2006-07 | |
| Table 2 : Total welfare expenditure (excluding tax credits) | |||
| Financial years | |||
| 1991-92 to 1996-97 | 1996-97 to 2001-02 | 2001-02 to 2006-07 | |
| Notes: 1. The figures are in nominal (cash) terms and are rounded to the nearest million. 2. Figures exclude tax credits. Tax credits are the responsibility of HMRC. 3. All figures other than 2006-07 are outturn. 2006-07 are estimated outturn figures. Source: DWP Expenditure tables consistent with Budget 2007 | |||
Social Security Benefits: Payments
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what average period of time elapsed between application for (a) jobseeker's allowance, (b) council tax benefit and (c) housing benefit and receipt of the first payment by a claimant in each of the last three years. [134642]
Mr. Plaskitt: The requested information is in the following tables.
| Jobseekers allowance average actual clearance times in days per financial year | |
| Days | |
| Note: The average actual clearance times for jobseekers allowance claims is measured from the date of claim registration to the date a decision or payment notification is issued to the customer. Source: DWP Management Information System Programme | |
| Average days to process housing benefit and council tax benefit claims per financial year | |||
| 2005-06 | 2004-05 | 2003-04 | |
| Note: Housing benefit and council tax benefit processing times are measured from the date of receipt of the claim to the date a decision is made on the claim by the local authority. Source: Local Authority Management Information returns to DWP. | |||
State Retirement Pensions
Mr. Willetts:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was paid in retirement benefits in total to (a) couples, (b) single men and (c) single
women where the recipients were aged (i) 60 to 64, (ii) 65 to 69, (iii) 70 to 74, (iv) 75 to 79 and (v) over 79 years in the latest period for which figures are available. [132494]
James Purnell: The information requested is in the following table.
| Total expenditure on pensioner benefits by family type | ||||
| £ million | ||||
| Age group | Single men | Single women | Couples | All |
| Notes: 1. The pensioner benefit figures include expenditure on state pension, bereavement benefits for pensioners, pension credit and winter fuel payments. 2. The figures are expenditure across Great Britain and have been rounded to the nearest million pounds. 3. Total expenditure on pension benefits is taken from the provisional outturn for 2006-07 as published at Budget 2007. 4. The breakdown of pension credit expenditure between groups is based on the estimated proportions in 2006-07, consistent with Budget 2007 forecasts, projected forward from Departmental Administrative Sources. 5. The breakdown of winter fuel payment expenditure between age groups is based on a 100 per cent. sample of administrative records in 2005-06. Full payments have been broken down by family type using estimated proportions taken from Family Resources Survey 2005-06. Half payments are paid only to couples. 6. For pension credit and winter fuel payments a couple is defined as two people who are married or cohabiting. For state pension and bereavement benefits for pensioners, the definition of a couple is people who are married. Single people are all those who are not married (including those who may be widowed or divorced). The classification of marital status is based on an indicator on the dataset which has some known reliability issues and so may not be entirely accurate. 7. Expenditure on couples has been allocated to age groups according to the age of the partner actually receiving each payment; except for pension credit, where the expenditure cannot be allocated to individual partners, so the age of the elder partner is used. 8. The expenditure for men aged 60-64 are for pension credit and winter fuel payments only. State pension is paid only to men over state pension age, i.e. aged 65 years and over. Only bereavement benefits paid to those over state pension age are included. Source: Departmental Administrative Sources. Provisional out-turn accounting data for 2006-07 as published for Budget 2007. Family Resources Survey 2005-06. | ||||
Welfare to Work: Reform
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on what occasions he and his ministerial colleagues met David Freud prior to 18 December 2006. [127733]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The Secretary of State met David Freud on 28 November 2006 and I met David Freud on 4 December 2006. No other departmental Ministers met David Freud prior to 18 December 2006.
Treasury
Average Earnings
Mr. Frank Field:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average hourly pay was of the
(a) (i) lowest and (ii) highest decile, (b) (A) lowest and (B) highest quartile and (c) (I) lowest and (II) highest duo-decile as a percentage of the (x) average hourly pay and (y) average weekly wage of working people in employment in each year since 1997. [136393]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 8 May 2007:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what the average hourly pay was of (a) (i) lowest and (ii) highest decile, (b) (A) lowest and (B) highest quartile and (c) (I) lowest and (II) highest duo-decile, as a percentage of (x) average hourly pay and (y) average weekly wage of working people in employment in each year since 1997. I am replying in her absence. (136393)
Levels of earnings are estimated from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), and are provided for all employees on adult rates of pay whose pay for the survey period was not affected by absence. This is the standard definition used for ASHE. The ASHE does not collect information on the self employed and people who do unpaid work.
I attach tables showing the 5th, 10th, 25th, 75th, 90th and 95th percentile of Gross Hourly Pay, corresponding to the lowest duo-decile, lowest decile, lowest quartile, highest quartile, highest decile, and highest duo-decile respectively, for all employees, for the years 1997-2006. The tables also show the median average hourly pay, and weekly wage in each year since 1997, and the percentage of these values that the percentiles represent.
The ASHE, carried out in April each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. It is a one per cent sample of all employees who are members of pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) schemes.
| Gross hourly earnings for all employee ( 1) jobs | ||||||
| £ | ||||||
| UK | 5th percentile | 10th percentile | 25th percentile | 75th percentile | 90th percentile | 95th percentile |
| As a percentage of hourly pay | |||||||
| 5th percentile | 10th percentile | 25th percentile | 75th percentile | 90th percentile | 95th percentile | Average hourly pay( 3) | |
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