Written Answers to Questions
Monday 3 November 2008
Work and Pensions
Age: Discrimination
Mr. Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent research his Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated relating to age discrimination. [230130]
Mr. McFadden: I have been asked to reply.
BERR has commissioned The Second Fair Treatment at Work Survey recently to look at employees' perceptions of discrimination in the workplace. A report will be available mid-2009. BERR commissioned the Fair Treatment at Work Survey in 2005 and has provided some initial findings on discrimination in the workplace. An Executive Summary was published in March 2007.
BERR and DWP jointly commissioned the Survey of Employers' Policies and Practices relating to age in 2005. This looked at the extent to which employment policies and practices were in accordance with equality of opportunity with regard to age. The survey was carried out prior to the implementation of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations in 2006. A report was published in March 2006.
We intend to carry out a follow-up survey jointly with DWP in 2009. Results will be available in 2010.
Child Support Agency: Expenditure
Mr. Ancram: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost to the public purse of the Child Support Agency was in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08. [228620]
Kitty Ussher: The administration of the Child Support agency is a matter for the chef executive. He will write to the right hon. and learned Member with the information requested.
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost to the public purse of the Child Support Agency was in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08. [228620]
The Agency's operating cost for the year ending March 2008 was £563 million and for the previous year ending March 2007 was £520 million.
The Agency publishes its annual operating costs each year in its Annual Report and Accounts, current and previous copies of which are available in the House of Commons library or online at the following link:
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Children: Maintenance
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was paid in compensation by the Child Support Agency to (a) parents with care of one or more children and (b) non-resident parents in each of the last five years. [226118]
Kitty Ussher: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been paid in compensation by the Child Support Agency to (a) parents with care of one or more children and (b) non-resident parents in each of the last five years. [226118]
The Agency operates a discretionary, non-statutory scheme providing financial redress for maladministration and recompense where error or delays have had an adverse effect on clients' lives. Information on the total amount paid in financial redress under this scheme is published each year in the Agency's Annual Report and Accounts, copies of which are held in the House of Commons library or online at the following link:
Information on the total amount paid to redress actual financial loss, provide compensation for delay and consolatory payments are set out in the attached table. The information available relates to the total number and value of payments made, as the Agency does not collate information on the amount paid to either parents with care or non-resident parents.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what measures he has put in place to facilitate the clearing of arrears in child maintenance owed by absent parents; and if he will make a statement. [227633]
Kitty Ussher: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what measures he put in place to facilitate the clearing of arrears in child maintenance owed by absent parents; and if he will make a statement. [227633]
Since April 2006, under its three year Operational Improvement Plan the Agency put in place a number of improvements to support the collection of child maintenance debt, including the contracting out of some debt collection activity to private debt collection agencies and the introduction of more flexible payment methods such as credit and debit cards. We have also increased the number of our people engaged in enforcement activities and have improved the tools and processes allowing them to undertake enforcement work more effectively.
As a result the Agency is collecting more child maintenance arrears than it has ever done before and in September 2008 collected £14.6 million in maintenance arrears alone, more than twice the average amount collected each month before the introduction of the Operational Improvement Plan. Since March 2008, the Agency has collected £80.3 million in arrears, bringing to almost £297 million the total collected in maintenance arrears alone since April 2006.
The Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act 2008 strengthens the range of enforcement and debt management powers available to the new Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission. These include;
Deduction of maintenance payments and/or arrears from bank accounts;
Removing the need to apply to the court for a Liability Order;
Recovering arrears from deceased non resident parents’ estates;
Applying to the court for disqualification from holding or obtaining a passport;
Applying to the court for a curfew.
The Commission will bring these powers into force as soon as practicable in order to build on the Agency’s improvements and will continue to focus on collection of outstanding arrears.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Disability Living Allowance: Hemel Hempstead
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many residents of Hemel Hempstead receive the mobility component of disability living allowance at the (a) higher and (b) lower rate. [232596]
Jonathan Shaw: The available information is in the following table.
| Disability living allowance—cases in payment by mobility component type: Hemel Hempstead parliamentary constituency February 2008 | |
| Cases | |
| Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Totals show the number of people in receipt of an allowance, and exclude people with entitlement where the payment has been suspended, for example if they are in hospital. 3. These figures are published on the DWP website at www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/tabtool.asp Source: DWP Information Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study | |
Housing Benefit
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the effects of the Heffernan judgement in the House of Lords on 30 July 2008 on the delivery of local housing allowance; and if he will make a statement. [229578]
Kitty Ussher [holding answer 23 October 2008]: Following the judgment in the case of Mr. Heffernan, The Rent Service have revised their guidance to the rent officers on the setting of locality boundaries. As I said to the House on 20 October, I am also considering the implications of the judgment in the context of the current wider review of housing benefit.
National Insurance: Foreigners
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many national insurance number registrations have been granted to non-UK (a) EU and (b) non-EU citizens in each quarter since 2004. [225138]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 8 October 2008]: The available information is in the following table:
| National insurance number registrations to adult overseas nationals entering the United Kingdom by quarter of registration and EU/Non-EU status | ||
| Thousand | ||
| EU Nationals | Non- EU nationals | |
| Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 and displayed in thousands. 2. There are a small number of registrations where citizens' nationalities are unknown, these are not included. 3. Registration date is derived from the date at which a national insurance number is entered on the National Insurance Recording System. 4. When presenting the EU time series, countries which joined the EU during the time series have been included in the EU for the whole of the time series, to facilitate comparisons over time. 5. The EU time series excludes national insurance numbers registered to UK nationals. 6. The figures do not include any national insurance numbers that may have been issued to young foreign nationals under Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs juvenile registration scheme. Source: 100 per cent. extract from National Insurance Recording System This information is taken from a table published on the DWP website at: http://83.244.183.180/mgw/final/final/qtr/world/a_stock_r_qtr_c_world_apr08.html | ||
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