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22 Oct 2008 : Column 399W—continued
Departmental Recruitment
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many civil servants in his Department were recruited through the fast stream; and what the average salary of those officials is. [229188]
Jonathan Shaw: The Department does not hold historical information on how many civil servants have been recruited through the fast stream centrally or their average salary costs; this information could be obtained only at a disproportionate cost.
Departmental Security
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many security passes have been reported (a) lost and (b) stolen by staff in (i) his Department and (ii) agencies sponsored by his Department in each year since 2001. [228943]
Jonathan Shaw: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer given to the right hon. Member for Horsham (Mr. Maude) on 16 July 2008, Official Report, column 469W.
Disability Living Allowance: Sight Impaired
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions who represented his Department at meetings on 15 October with the (a) Royal National Institute for the Blind and (b) other organisations taking part in the lobby of Parliament that day regarding disability living allowance entitlements. [228642]
Jonathan Shaw: I had the great pleasure of attending and speaking at the Royal National Institute for the Blind's lobby of Parliament on 15 October. It provided me with a valuable opportunity to talk to many blind and partially sighted people as well as representatives of Royal National Institute for the Blind and their partner organisations.
Explosives: Storage
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on what occasions explosive site licences or applications for such licences have been revoked or refused on the grounds of the holder or applicant being deemed unfit to store explosives under the Manufacturing and Storage of Explosives Regulations 2005. [226685]
Jonathan Shaw: The Health and Safety Executive has used the power contained in the Manufacture and Storage of Explosives Regulations 2005 to refuse applications for a licence on the grounds of the applicant is unfit to store explosives on two occasions.
HSE has also notified the holders of two existing licences that it has decided to revoke their licences because they are not fit persons to store or manufacture explosives. HSE’s decisions in relation to these revocations are currently subject to appeal under the provisions of section 44 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
Comparable information is not available for local authorities and the police, who are also licensing authorities under the 2005 regulations.
Housing Benefit
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people claimed housing benefit (a) in each of the last five years and (b) in each month of the last two years. [226188]
Kitty Ussher: Figures for numbers of claimants are not available. Figures for the number of recipients are available and can be supplied only on a quarterly basis.
The available information is in the tables.
| Number of recipients of housing benefit in Great Britain 2003-07 | |
| Number | |
| Notes: 1. Figures for any non-responding local authorities have been estimated. 2. The data refer to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 3. The figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. Source: Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System Quarterly 100 per cent. taken in August 2003 to August 2007. | |
| Number of recipients of housing benefit in Great Britain in 2006-07 | |
| Number | |
| Notes: 1. Figures for any non-responding local authorities have been estimated. 2. The data refer to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 3. The figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. Source: Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System Quarterly 100 per cent. taken in February 2006 to August 2007. | |
Incapacity Benefits
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of incapacity benefit claimants had been in receipt of incapacity benefit for five years or more in the last year for which figures are available. [225573]
Jonathan Shaw: A holding reply was sent 22 October 2008.
The available information is in the following table. Of new claimants coming onto incapacity benefits, well over half will leave within a year. Those who have been on benefit for over five years will include the most severely disabled. This group has much greater barriers to work and understandably remain on incapacity benefits for longer durations.
The Green Paper “No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility”, Cm 7363, announced our intention to extend our reforms to existing customers, and ensure that they too benefit from the help and support available. We will begin this by introducing, in 2009, mandatory pathways to work interviews for existing customers under aged 25. By 2013 all customers will have been migrated from incapacity benefits to employment and support allowance and as part of that most will be required to engage with us in a pathways to work style programme.
| Number of incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance claimants with a duration of five years or more | |||
| Quarter | All durations | Duration 5 years or more | Duration of 5 years or more as a percentage of total caseload |
| Notes: 1. Caseload figures are rounded to the nearest 10, 2. Totals may not sum due to rounding. Source: DWP information Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study | |||
Income Support: Mortgages
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) at what interest rate income support mortgage interest rate payments are being made; and at what rate income support mortgage interest payments were paid in each of the last 10 years for which information is available; [226190]
(2) how often the interest rate for income support mortgage interest payments is set; [226191]
(3) at what level the interest rate for income support mortgage interest payments was set in each month for the last two years; [226192]
(4) on what basis the interest rate for income support mortgage interest payments is set. [226193]
Kitty Ussher: From December 2004, the standard interest rate (SIR) used to calculate support for mortgage interest payments in income support, income-based jobseeker’s allowance and state pension credit was changed to respond to changes in the Bank of England base rate. The SIR is the Bank of England base rate plus an additional 1.58 per cent. This is more representative, transparent, easier to understand and easier to administer than the previous method, which was based upon an average of building society interest rates. The additional 1.58 per cent. recognises the fact that lenders’ interest rates are set at a higher rate than the base rate and to ensure that no-one lost out when the method of calculation changed.
DWP no longer needs to wait for the collation of statistics by the Financial Services Authority and the official publication by the Office for National Statistics
of the average building society interest rate. Nor does it need to lay regulations to change the SIR. As soon as the Bank of England announces a change which triggers a move in the SIR, action is taken to amend the relevant departmental computer systems. This has reduced the implementation time by approximately four weeks compared to the pre-December 2004 arrangements. Changes are normally implemented in about five weeks from the Bank of England’s announcement.
The SIR is currently 6.58 per cent. The Bank of England announced a 0.5 per cent. cut in the base rate on 8 October. This will mean that the SIR will reduce to 6.08 per cent. in about five weeks’ time.
The information requested is in the table.
| Support for mortgage interest: standard interest rate (SIR) changes since 1998 | |
| Payable date | SIR (percentage) |
| Note: From 5 December 2004, the SIR has been calculated using the Bank of England base rate plus 1.58 per cent. Prior to that, it was based upon an average of building society interest rates. | |
Members: Correspondence
Mr. Tom Clarke: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he will reply to the letters from the right hon. Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill of 4 June, 22 July, 12 September and 1 October about his constituent Mr Gerald Mahoney. [227803]
Kitty Ussher: A holding reply was sent on 17 October 2008.
My right hon. Friend's letter of 4 June was not received by the Department.
Replies were sent to my right hon. Friend on:
19 August in response to his letter of 22 July;
16 October in response to his letter of 12 September and;
19 October in response to his letter of 1 October.
Occupational Pensions
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the proportion of the working age population that belonged to an employer-sponsored defined benefit pension scheme in each year since 1997. [226170]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested is as follows:
| Estimates of the percentage of the working-age population who belong to an employer-sponsored defined benefit pension, by year. | |
| Percentage | |
| Notes: 1. Pension scheme membership figures were taken from the Occupational Pension Scheme Survey. Data for years 1991, 1995, 2000 and 2004 were produced by the Government Actuary's Department (GAD). Data for 2007 and revised data for 2006 were published by ONS in September 2008. The coverage of the survey is the UK. 2. Population figures were taken from Table 1 of the mid-year population estimates produced by the Office for National Statistics. 2007 is the latest year published. 3. The working age population is defined as males aged 16 to 64 and females aged 16 to 59. 4. To be eligible for membership of an occupational pension scheme, including defined benefit schemes, a person must be an employee working for an employer offering such a scheme.2007 | |
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