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19 Jun 2007 : Column 1738W—continued
Financial Assistance Scheme
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the compatibility of the Financial Assistance Scheme with the judgement of the European Court of Justice in cases where a scheme member's expected pension is greater than £52,000 per year. [136026]
James Purnell: The judgment of the European Court of Justice did not deal directly with the question of a cap for high earning pensioners. However, we do consider that the cap of £26,000 is consistent with the social purpose behind the 1980 Directive.
Incapacity Benefit: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department took to implement cognitive behavioural therapy provision for incapacity benefit claimants in the UK in each year since 2005. [142215]
Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 12 June 2007]: Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a practical therapy that helps people to manage their health condition. Jobcentre Plus delivers a CBT-based approach through its condition management programmes. However, it is not designed to replace treatment available to people through the NHS. Where the programme is available, it forms an important element of the range of help available through our Pathways to Work Choices package. Condition management programmes are currently provided in collaboration with the NHS and Jobcentre Plus.
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many incapacity benefit claimants have undertaken cognitive behavioural therapy in each of the last three years. [142216]
Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 12 June 2007]: The information is not available.
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many practitioners of cognitive behavioural therapy have been recruited by his Department to work with incapacity benefit claimants in each of the last three years. [142217]
Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 12 June 2007]: This Department does not recruit practitioners of cognitive behavioural therapy. Condition management programmes (CMPs) are provided in collaboration with the NHS and Jobcentre Plus as part of the range of support in Pathways to Work areas. The NHS/primary care trusts are responsible for delivering on CMP contracts in those areas. The numbers of cognitive behavioural therapy-trained staff in each area varies according to local needs and how the programmes are delivered.
Jobseeker’s Allowance
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people claimed jobseeker’s allowance in (a) 2004 and (b) 2006 in each parliamentary constituency. [143824]
Mr. Plaskitt: The available information has been placed in the Library.
National Insurance Contributions: Rebates
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) a Minister in which Department made the decision not to implement in full the recommendations of the Government Actuary on the level of contracted-out national insurance rebates from April 2008; and if he will make a statement; [141173]
(2) on how many occasions since May 1997 his Department has not accepted recommendations from the Government Actuarial Department; and if he will make a statement. [141174]
James Purnell: Decisions on the level of contracted-out national insurance rebates are a matter for the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. The current contracted-out rebate rates were set out in the Secretary of State's report laid before each House of Parliament on 1 March 2006 and reflected in the rebate Order made on 30 March 2006. This report gave due consideration to the report of the Government Actuary and to other considerations such as the fiscal conditions which prevailed at the time. As with all decisions which have a major impact on public expenditure, including previous rebate reviews, the recommended rates were agreed with HM Treasury.
The Secretary of State has departed from the rebate rates recommended by the Government Actuary on two occasions in the period covered by the question, in addition to the one where the Government Actuary's recommendation for rebate rates from 2007 was not fully implemented. The two occasions were the application of a 9.0 per cent. cap on age-related percentages for contracted-out DC schemes for the period 1999-2000 to 2001-02 tax year, and the application of a 10.5 per cent. cap from 2002-03 to 2006-07.
Pension Credit
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what easements of pension credit procedures there were within the Pensions Service in each year from April 2001 to April 2007; and if he will make a statement. [138125]
James Purnell: Pension credit was introduced in October 2003. A number of revisions to standard operating processes were introduced between October 2003 and March 2004 to ensure applications were dealt with effectively during the initial take on period. These revisions covered the following areas:
means of verifying the uprating of second pensions;
treatment of unanswered questions on the claim form;
acceptance of photocopies of certain documents;
acceptance of claim forms signed in the wrong place;
evidence required for the backdating of a claim;
a reduction in the amount of visiting to support programme protection, allowing Local Service to concentrate on pension credit take-up and alleviating pensioner poverty;
reductions in checking. Our experience of the reduced levels of checking during this period subsequently led to the removal of seven checks and a reduction in the checking level of another six.
These revisions ended with effect from April 2004 and Pension Centres returned to standard operating procedures.
Pension Credit: Blackpool
Mrs. Humble: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Blackpool North and Fleetwood constituency are in receipt of pensions credit. [143977]
James Purnell: As at February 2007, 6,670 households in Blackpool North and Fleetwood constituency were receiving pension credit.
Notes:
1. The figure provided is an early estimate. The preferred data source for figures supplied by DWP is the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS). However, the figure provided is the latest available figure, which is taken from the GMS scan at 2 March 2007. These are adjusted using the historical relationship between WPLS and GMS data to give an estimate of the final WPLS figure.
2. Caseloads are rounded to the nearest ten.
3. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant postcode directory and are therefore based on the 2005 parliamentary boundaries.
4. Households are those people who claim pension credit either for themselves only or on behalf of a household.
Source:
DWP 100 per cent. data from the Generalised Matching Service (GMS). Pension credit scan taken as at 2 March 2007.
Pension Credit: Lancashire
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in West Lancashire constituency are in receipt of pension credit. [143519]
James Purnell: As at February 2007 4,890 households in West Lancashire constituency were receiving pension credit.
Notes:
1. The figure provided is an early estimate. The preferred data source for figures supplied by DWP is the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS). However, the figure provided is the latest available figure, which is taken from the GMS scan at 2 March 2007. These are adjusted using the historical relationship between WPLS and GMS data to give an estimate of the final WPLS figure.
2. Caseloads are rounded to the nearest ten.
3. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant postcode directory and are therefore based on the 2005 parliamentary boundaries.
4. Households are those people who claim pension credit either for themselves only or on behalf of a household.
Source:
DWP 100 per cent. data from the Generalised Matching Service (GMS).
Pension Credit scan taken as at 2 March 2007.
Pension Credit: Telephone Services
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many requests for pension scheme tracking the Pension Tracking Service of the Pension Service received on telephone number 0845 6002 537 in each month since the service has been offered. [138041]
James Purnell: The information is in the following table.
The Pensions Tracing Service started to provide a telephone tracing application service from June 2006.
| Number of requests to the Pensions Tracing Service telephone number each month since June 2006 | |
| Telephone requests | |
| Note: Applications received via the telephone service typically represent around 25 per cent. of the volume of applications per month. Source: Information generated from the Pension Tracing IT system | |
Pensions
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will place in the Library the figures which form the basis of the charts in the two pensions White Papers published in 2006 which are on his Department’s website. [141547]
James Purnell: The figures which form the basis of the charts in the two pensions White Papers have been placed in the Library.
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will update and expand chart 3.11 of the Purple Book using information from additional scheme returns since it was published. [143548]
James Purnell: This is not a matter for the Secretary of State.
The Purple Book, published in December 2006, was a joint study by the Pensions Regulator and the Pension Protection Fund (PPF). The statistics were generated through analysis of information collected by the Pensions Regulator from pension scheme returns. Some of this information was further processed by the PPF in collaboration with the Government Actuaries' Department so that valuation information was as at a common date.
This will be an annual publication.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his latest estimates are of the number of individuals in contracted out (a) defined benefit and (b) defined contribution pension schemes for each year from 1996-97 to 2007-08; and if he will make a statement. [144079]
James Purnell: The information is in the following table.
| Membership of contracted-out pension schemes | |||
| Million | |||
| Type of contracted-out scheme | |||
| Defined contribution | |||
| Defined benefit | Occupational | Personal | |
| Notes: 1. Figures are for UK and are shown in millions. 2. Figures for defined contribution personal pension schemes include stakeholder pension schemes. Source: Actual figures derived from Second Tier Pension Provision Statistics for 1996-97 to 2003-04 and DWP estimates thereafter. | |||
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