| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
17 Dec 2007 : Column 937W—continued
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many people have entered the new deal for musicians in each of the last 10 years; [166609]
(2) how many people have left the new deal for musicians and (a) gone into sustained employment, (b) gone into employment, (c) returned to or continued receiving benefit payments immediately on leaving, (d) returned to benefit payments within six months and (e) returned to benefit payments within one year. [166610]
Caroline Flint: New deal for musicians (NDfM) aims to help aspiring unemployed musicians into a sustainable career in the music industry, either as artists under contract or unsupported self-employed artists within the music industry.
New deal for musicians is delivered as part of the mainstream new deal for young people and new deal 25 plus programmes; participant numbers and job outcomes for new deal for musicians are now incorporated into statistics for these mainstream programmes.
The available information on the number of people who have entered new deal for musicians in each year is in the following table.
| Number of participants in new deal for musicians | |
| Total in year (£) | |
| Source: New deal for musicians database. | |
Separate information on the number of people who have left new deal for musicians for employment is only available up to November 2005 and only available for those leaving for sustained jobs. Up to the end of November 2005, 3,880(1)( )people had left the programme for sustained employment.
The remaining requested information is not available.
( 1) Source:
New deal evaluation database, DWP information directorate
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much it cost to establish the new deal for musicians' website www.ndfmlearning.com; and how much it cost to operate it in the last 12 months. [166611]
Caroline Flint: The new deal for musicians’ website at www.ndfmlearning.com provides access to open learning materials relevant to the new deal for musicians programme and employment in the music industry.
The website cost £17,860 to establish and £5,550 to operate in the last 12 months.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much it cost to develop and produce the wordbooks for the new deal for musicians. [166612]
Caroline Flint: New deal for musicians (NDfM) aims to help aspiring unemployed musicians into a sustainable career in the music industry, either as artists under contract or unsupported self-employed artists within the music industry.
There are nine new deal for musicians workbooks covering subjects such as: jobs in the music industry; recording and production; copyright, and performing. They are available as paper copies and as downloads from the website www.ndfm.learning.com.
The total cost up to November 2007 of developing and producing the workbooks is £269,059.
New Deal Schemes: Music
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many hits the ndfmlearning.com website received in each of the last 10 years for which data are available. [166728]
Caroline Flint: The new deal for musicians website www.ndfmlearning.com was launched on the 21 July 2005 and was fully accessible from the 23 February 2006. Full data on the number of visits to the website is only available from that date.
In the period 23 February 2006 to 31 December 2006 there were 8,583 visitors to the site and they viewed 24,841 web pages; in the period 1 January 2007 to 31 October 2007(1 )there were 8,375 visitors and they viewed 25,187 web pages.
(1)Latest available data.
New Deal for Young People: Employment
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many of the entrants to the new deal for young people found sustained employment during (a) the four month Gateway period and (b) the period of activity on mandatory options in each year since the inception of the programme; and what percentage of those engaged in each of the four options found sustained employment. [162678]
Caroline Flint:
New deal for young people (NDYP) is mandatory for people aged 18 to 24 who have been claiming jobseeker's allowance (JSA) for six months.
Participants enter a Gateway lasting up to 16 weeks during which personal advisers provide intensive support to improve the job prospects of participants. Those who have not found work at the end of the Gateway period are referred onto one of four options:
The employment option;
Full-time education and training option;
Voluntary sector option; and
Environment task force option.
People who have not found work through the options are referred to the follow-through period of NDYP.
The available information has been placed in the Library.
New Deal Schemes
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what percentage of those leaving (a) the new deal for young people and (b) New Deal 25 plus recommenced claiming benefits within (i) six months and (ii) 12 months of leaving the scheme in each year since the schemes began. [162359]
Caroline Flint: People who have been on the new deal programme who subsequently return to benefits may be in receipt of out of work or inactive benefits and may not, due to changes in personal circumstances, necessarily return to the benefit they were claiming before they participated in the new deal.
Information on the percentage of leavers from new deal for young people and new deal 25 plus who recommenced claiming benefits within six and 12 months is in the following table.
| Percentage of leavers from new deal for young people and new deal 25 plus who recommenced claiming benefits within six and 12 months of leaving the programmes | ||||
| New deal for young people | New deal 25 plus | |||
| 6 months | 12 months | 6 months | 12 months | |
| Notes: 1. Latest data is to May 2007, therefore, allowing for a 12 month gap, only new deal leavers to May 2006 are included within the 12 month column; allowing for a 6 month gap, only new deal leavers to November 2006 are included within the 6 month column. 2. People claiming within 6 months will also be included as claiming within 12 months. 3. The benefits included are: incapacity benefits, invalid care allowance, income support, jobseeker’s allowance, severe disablement allowance and widows/bereavement benefits. 4. A benefit claim has only been included if it is a new claim after leaving new deal. People can leave new deal and continue a benefit claim; these people are not included as returning to benefit. Source: Information Directorate, Department for Work and Pensions | ||||
Pensioners
Mr. Kemp: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners took up pension credits in each of the last five years. [173560]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The answer is in the following table.
The numbers of households receiving, and individual beneficiaries of pension credit in each of the last five years are shown in the following table.
| Number of households receiving pension credit | Number of individual beneficiaries of pension credit | |
| Notes: 1. The number of households in receipt are rounded to the nearest ten thousand. 2. Pension credit was introduced in October 2003 so data for 2003 is as at November. 3. Household recipients are those people who claim pension credit either for themselves only or on behalf of a household. 4. The number of individual beneficiaries includes both claimants and their partners, some of whom may be under 60 years of age. 5. Time series data includes minimum income guarantee (MIG) cases: households on income support where the claimant and/or partner are aged 60 or over. About 1.8 million MIG cases transferred to pension credit on 6 October 2003. Source: DWP Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study 100 per cent. data | ||
Pensions
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what contingency plans he has put in place should pension and benefits claimants be unable to access their payments before Christmas 2007. [175077]
Mr. Plaskitt: Our contingency plans, which are flexible and proven, include prioritising our resources to ensure that our customers receive their payments on time. Every departmental business area has business continuity plans in place to support this top priority. Emergency payments can be made using our out of hours service where required.
Poverty: Children
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on what date the first meeting of the Joint Child Poverty Unit was held. [175090]
Caroline Flint: The formation of the Child Poverty Unit was announced at the Barnados ‘Paying the Price of Child Poverty’ conference on 29 October and the unit formally came into being on 12 November. It brings together officials from the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Children, Schools and Families who now work side by side.
Social Fund: Administration
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been spent on average per year on the administration of the Social Fund in the last five years; and what proportion of this has been spent on the delivery of frontline services. [172630]
Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Chief Executive, Lesley Strathie. I have asked her to reply to the hon. Member.
Letter from Mel Groves, dated 14 December 2007 :
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question concerning how much has been spent on average per year on the administration of the Social Fund in the last five years; and what proportion of this has been spent on the delivery of front line services. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to Ms Strathie as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus. I am replying in her absence as Acting Chief Executive.
Our unit cost information only goes back to 2003/4. The average expenditure per year on the administration of Social Fund over the last four years is £74m. In 2006/7, 86% of the total expenditure was on the delivery of customer facing services.
I hope this is helpful.
Social Security Benefits
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) people and (b) lone parents lost all of their benefit as a result of not attending repeat work-focused interviews at Jobcentre Plus offices in each of the last three years for which figures are available. [172710]
Caroline Flint [holding answer 10 December 2007]: Primary claimants of inactive benefits i.e. sick and disabled people, lone parents, carers and widow/ers are required to attend repeat Work Focused Interviews (WFIs).
Sanctions are applied as a last resort following failure to attend a mandatory WFI without good reason. The sanction ends when the claimant complies with their obligation to attend the WFI, or when the requirement to attend is waived.
Most repeat WFIs are carried out with disabled people, under the Pathways regime, and lone parents. The number of people in these categories that have lost all, rather than some of their benefit, due to failing to attend repeat WFIs is less than 10 in each of the last three years. Under Data Protection rules, a more specific number cannot be provided.
The requested information for carers, widow(er)s and disabled people not under the Pathways regime could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. People in these groups have very few repeat WFIs and it is very unlikely that any will have lost their benefits due to failing to attend such interviews.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |