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13 Nov 2008 : Column 1303W—continued
Departmental Conditions of Employment
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what percentage of employees in his Department are (a) on a flexible working contract, (b) on a job share employment contract and (c) work from home for more than four hours a week. [233817]
Jonathan Shaw: The information is as follows.
At the end of September 2008, 35 per cent. (39,490) of employees in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were on part-time flexible working contracts.
Details of job sharing are held on individual clerical records. To extract data from clerical records would be at disproportionate cost.
The Department does not collect data to identify whether employees work from home or another location for a part of the week.
DWP tries to be as flexible as possible, in addition to working from home permanently on a contractual basis employees may occasionally work from home on an ad hoc basis. Ad-hoc arrangements allowing employees to work from home are not uncommon. Statistical data are not collected about ad-hoc home working.
Departmental Databases
James Duddridge: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what use (a) his Department and (b) its agencies make of (i) MOSAIC data and (ii) ACORN data. [222135]
Jonathan Shaw: The information requested is as follows.
(a) The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) currently makes no use of either data source.
(b) MOSAIC data is currently used by the Pensions, Disability and Carers Service (PDCS) and the Rent Service.
The PDCS use MOSAIC data to enhance our understanding of the pensioner population, and to support pension credit take-up activity. This helps provide additional customer insight when we have no internal data, so that communications and marketing can be suitably targeted.
The Rent Service also uses the household version of MOSAIC data to help determine localities and broad rental market area for fair rent and housing benefit decisions. The data have been integrated into their geographical information systems so that an immediate understanding of neighbourhood demographics can be determined.
ACORN analysis was used, on the Department’s behalf, by the Central Office of Information (COI) in 2007-08. It identified postcode sectors in 50 local authority areas for mailing purposes, as part of the targeting benefit thieves campaign, “No Ifs, No Buts”.
Housing Benefit
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he expects the joint report his Department has produced with the Treasury on housing benefit to be published. [235566]
Kitty Ussher: An update will be published in the forthcoming White Paper on Welfare Reform.
Incapacity Benefit
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of incapacity benefit claimants likely to undertake the new work capability assessment in each month up to and including December 2010. [231469]
Jonathan Shaw: Currently the work capability assessment is applied only to employment and support allowance claimants. We expect that on average 50,000 to 55,000 new claimants per month will undertake the work capability assessment depending on the level of inflows.
The Green Paper “No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility”, Cm 7363, which was published in July, proposed that all existing incapacity benefits customers would be transferred to employment and support allowance by 2013, and as part of that process the work capability assessment would be applied.
The public consultation has recently closed and we are currently considering representations received. We will respond to the consultation in due course, including on the process of applying the work capability assessment to existing customers.
Jobcentres
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what change there has been in the number of vacancies available through job centres in each of (a) the last four years and (b) the last four quarters. [233572]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 6 November 2008]: The information is in the following tables.
| Numbers of notified vacancies for Great Britain by year | |||
| Number of vacancies notified | Year by year difference | Percentage change | |
| Numbers of notified vacancies for Great Britain by quarter | |||
| Quarter | Number of vacancies notified | Quarter by quarter difference | Percentage change |
| Notes: 1. Changes to Jobcentre Plus vacancy handling procedures have led to a major discontinuity in the vacancy statistic pre and post May 2006. See: http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/articles/177.aspx#may06 before comparing data over this period. Interpretation of these data needs to take account of changes in recent years to Jobcentre Plus procedures for taking and handling vacancies. 2. These figures are not fully comparable over time and may not indicate developments in the labour market. Source: Office for National Statistics | |||
New Deal for 25 Plus
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of claimants on the New Deal 25 Plus Programme entered immediately into sustainable employment in each month since May 2007, broken down by (a) region and (b) Jobcentre Plus district; and if he will make a statement. [231077]
Mr. McNulty: The available information has been placed in the Library.
New Deal for Young People
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of claimants on the New Deal for Young People Programme entered sustainable employment immediately (a) in each month since May 2007 and (b) in each of the last 12 months (i) in total and (ii) in each (A) region and (B) Jobcentre Plus district; and if he will make a statement. [230563]
Mr. McNulty: The information has been placed in the Library.
Severe Disablement Allowance
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average processing time was for severe disablement allowance applications in each quarter of each of the last five years (a) in total and (b) broken down by the lowest geographical area for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [231085]
Jonathan Shaw: Severe disablement allowance was replaced by incapacity benefit for incapacitated young persons (IB(Y)). This element of incapacity benefit considers claims from customers aged 16-24.
From 2004 to 2006 the lowest geographical area for which figures are available was at a district level. From 2006 to date the lowest geographical area for which figures are available is at benefit delivery centre (BDC) level.
The information has been placed in the Library.
Social Security Benefits
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate his Department has made of (a) the number of non-UK citizens claiming family benefits in the UK and (b) the number of UK citizens claiming family benefits elsewhere in the EU in accordance with Article 73 of Regulation 1408/71. [234199]
Mr. Timms: I have been asked to reply.
Nationality is not a condition of entitlement to child benefit or tax credits, so it is not recorded. Therefore information about how many non-UK nationals overall are claiming UK family benefits under the EC regulations is not available.
Information about the number of UK nationals claiming family benefits elsewhere in the EU/EEA is a matter for the relevant authorities of other member states.
Social Security Benefits: Coastal Areas
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of the working age population in each principal seaside town in England and Wales have claimed (a) incapacity benefit, (b) lone parent benefit and (c) jobseeker’s allowance in each of the last five years. [235547]
Kitty Ussher: The information cannot be provided due to disproportionate costs.
Social Security Benefits: Lone Parents
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many lone parents he expects to seek loans under the lone parent transition loan arrangements as a result of transition from income support to jobseekers allowance/employment support allowance; and what budget has been planned for such arrangements. [233057]
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what estimate he has made of the average amount of a lone parent transition loan taken out by lone parents during the transition from claiming income support to claiming other benefits in each phase of the eligibility rules for income support introduced by the Social Security (Lone Parents and Miscellaneous) Regulations 2008; and if he will make a statement; [233229]
(2) what estimate he has made of the number of lone parents who will require a lone parent transition loan during their transition from claiming income support to claiming other benefits in each phase of the
eligibility rules for income support introduced by the Social Security (Lone Parents and Miscellaneous) Regulations 2008; and if he will make a statement. [233248]
Kitty Ussher: The planning assumption for the number of lone parents who may require a lone parent transition loan is 55,000 for Phase 1 of the lone parent changes only. From April 2009, Phase 2 and 3 lone parent customers will begin to be migrated to standard paydays as part of periodicity changes, therefore removing the need for a transition loan.
Lone parent transition loans will be paid under crisis loan legislation. The crisis loan funding comes from the amount allocated annually for budgeting and crisis loans. The lone parent transitional loans will be funded from this budget.
No estimates have been made of average amounts of lone parent transitional loans, but the Department has worked on the assumption that budgets will be available to cover the cost of lone parents seeking loans during
the transition from income support to jobseeker’s allowance or employment and support allowance in Phase 1 of the lone parent changes.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of lone parents to be moved from income support onto (a) jobseeker’s allowance, (b) employment support allowance and (c) other benefits in each month of the next three years as a result of the provisions of the Social Security (Lone Parents and Miscellaneous) Regulations 2008; and if he will make a statement. [233247]
Kitty Ussher: Information is not available broken down by month. Based on internal analysis carried out for departmental planning purposes, current estimates for each quarter of the number of lone parents in receipt of income support who will move onto jobseeker’s allowance, employment and support allowance or income support on grounds other than being a lone parent as a result of the legislative changes are shown in the following table.
| Jobseeker’s allowance | Employment and support allowance | Income support (on grounds other than being a lone parent) | |
| Notes: 1. Figures based on internal analysis of DWP administrative data. 2. Figures rounded to the nearest 50. 3. Figures exceed the number of lone parents with children aged seven and over currently on income support, as it includes lone parents with youngest children who become too old within the year and who are moved off income support. 4. The changes are being introduced for new and repeat claimants from November 2008, and for existing income support claimants from March 2009. 5. The question has been interpreted as the number of existing income support claimants affected only. | |||
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