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20 Mar 2008 : Column 1403W—continued
Social Security Benefits: Post Office Card Account
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 21 February 2008, Official Report, column 1024W, on social security benefits: post office card account, what the administrative cost of paying benefits into post office card accounts, excluding start-up costs or investment in delivery systems, was in the last 12 months for which information is available. [194671]
Mr. Plaskitt: The administrative cost to DWP of paying benefits into a Post Office card account, excluding start-up costs or investment in delivery systems from April 2006 to March 2007 was £152 million. HM Revenue and Social Security Agency, Northern Ireland also have contracts with Post Office for payments they make into a Post Office card account.
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 21 February 2008, Official Report, column 1024W, on social security benefits: post office card account, what the average transaction cost was of each benefit payment into a (a) bank account and (b) post office card account in the last 12 months for which information is available; and if he will make a statement. [194672]
Mr. Plaskitt: Currently, the average transaction cost of each benefit payment into (a) a bank account is around 1p and (b) into a Post Office card account is around 80p.
State Retirement Pensions
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the cost of uprating the basic state pension on the basis of average earnings in (a) 2010, (b) 2012 and (c) 2015; and if he will make a statement. [192118]
Mr. Mike O'Brien:
Current baseline projections of expenditure on pensioner benefits assume that the basic state pension is increased by earnings from 2012.
The net additional cost of increasing the basic state pension by earnings from 2010-11 or 2015-16 is given in the following table.
| Net additional cost (£ billion, 2007-08 prices) of increasing the basic state pension by earnings from: | ||
| Net additional annual cost | 2010-11 | 2015-16 |
| Notes: 1. Estimates are additional to the baseline assumption of increasing the basic state pension by earnings from 2012. During the next Parliament, we will re-link the uprating of the basic state pension to average earnings. Our objective, subject to affordability and the fiscal position, is to do this in 2012, but in any event by the end of the Parliament at the latest. We will make a statement on the precise date at the beginning of the next Parliament. 2. Estimates are presented in net terms reflecting that the estimated savings from reduced income related benefit payments (pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit) have been deducted. The proportions of additional expenditure saved through reduced income related benefit payments have been estimated using the Department’s policy simulation model and are assumed to remain constant over time. 3. In the financial years up to and including 2013-14 Treasury economic assumptions consistent with Budget 2008 have been used to model earnings uprating. After this point a long term earnings growth assumption of 4.93 per cent. has been applied. 4. Estimates are in 2007-08 prices and have been rounded to the nearest £0.1 billion. Source: DWP modelling | ||
Children, Schools and Families
Academies: Expenditure
Mr. Purchase: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the total annual revenue support was for English (a) academy schools and (b) community schools in each year since 2003-04; and what the average spend per pupil was in English (i) academy schools and (ii) community schools in each year. [189200]
Jim Knight: The Department aims to provide academies with funding for running costs that is equivalent to other state-funded schools in similar circumstances in their local authority. Achieving equivalence requires the Department to make certain adjustments, for example, to reflect a phased intake of pupils, or VAT status. In addition, academies are funded to buy services that local authorities would normally provide to other schools free of charge, such as education welfare services.
The National Audit Office’s report, “The Academies Programme” (HC 254 Session 2006-07, 23 February 2007), examined the Department’s formula for calculating ongoing funding and found that it should achieve the intended equivalence. The following table showing the average per pupil funding of academies and maintained community secondary schools in local authorities with academies supports this conclusion.
| Financial year | Average per pupil funding in academies( 1) | Average school-based expenditure per pupil in maintained community secondary schools in local authorities with academies |
| n/a = Not available. (1) Excludes elements paid to academies to compensate for increased costs (start-up grant; VAT grant; earmarked additional grants; and local authority central spend equivalent grant). | ||
Detailed figures underlying this summary chart and figures for the total annual revenue support are given in the following tables.
Academies recurrent funding since 2003-04 is detailed as follows:
| £ | |||
| Financial year | General annual grant | Per pupil | Per pupil excluding elements paid to compensate for increased costs( 1) |
| (1) Excluded items are start-up grant; VAT grant; earmarked additional grants; and local authority central spend equivalent grant. Source: DCSF Academies Finance Team. | |||
The total budget share plus grants allocated to local authority maintained community schools in England for the same period is as follows:
| £ | |||
| Financial year | All maintained community primary and secondary schools | Primary schools | Secondary schools |
| Source: The financial data are drawn from the local authorities section 52 Outturn Statements submitted to the DCSF (formerly DfES). 2007-08 figures remain provisional and subject to change by the local authority. | |||
The equivalent figures for community schools in local authorities with academies in them are as follows:
| £ | |||
| Financial year | Total allocated to maintained community schools in local authorities with academies | Total allocated to primary schools in local authorities with academies | Total allocated to secondary schools in local authorities with academies |
| Source: The financial data are drawn from the local authorities section 52 Outturn Statements submitted to the DCSF (formerly DfES). 2007-08 figures remain provisional and subject to change by the local authority. | |||
School-based expenditure per pupil in local authority maintained community schools is as follows (cash terms figures as reported by local authorities as at 11 March 2008).
| Financial year | All maintained community primary and secondary schools | Primary schools | Secondary schools | Community schools within LAs with academies | Primary schools within LAs with academies | Secondary schools within LAs with academies |
| Notes: 1. School-based expenditure includes only expenditure incurred directly by the schools. This includes the pay of teachers and school-based support staff, school premises costs, books and equipment, and certain other supplies and services, less any capital items funded from recurrent spending and income from sales, fees and charges and rents and rates. This excludes the central cost of support services such as home to school transport, local authority administration and the financing of capital expenditure. Pupil numbers include only those pupils attending maintained establishments within each sector and are drawn from the DCSF schools census adjusted to be on a financial year basis. 2. Figures for secondary schools include any LSC funding and LSC pupils for schools with sixth forms. 3. The figures for “community schools within LAs with academies” includes the average school-based expenditure per pupil for all maintained community primary and secondary schools within those local authorities which also had academies during the financial year. Source: The financial data are drawn from the local authorities section 52 Outturn Statements submitted to the DCSF (formerly DfES). 2006-07 figures remain provisional and subject to change by the local authority. | ||||||
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