House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 26 Nov 2008 (pt 0105)

26 Nov 2008 : Column 1976W—continued

Incapacity Benefit

Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 20 October 2008, Official Report, column 1202W, on unemployment benefits, what his Department's forecast was for expenditure on incapacity benefit in each of the next five years had the employment and support allowance not been introduced. [235623]

Jonathan Shaw [holding answer 13 November 2008]: Expenditure on incapacity benefits/employment and support allowance payable at employment and support allowance rates or alternatively at incapacity benefit rates are tabled as follows. These are based on latest pre-Budget report projections and exclude housing benefit/council tax benefit impacts, which add further to the cost of paying employment and support allowance as opposed to incapacity benefit rates.

Benefit expenditure, (nominal terms), Great Britain
£ millions
	Incapacity benefits/employment and support allowance	Incapacity benefits/employment and support allowance payable at incapacity benefit rates	Impact of employment and support allowance rates
2008-09	12,644	12,646	-2
2009-10	12,872	12,840	32
2010-11	12,645	12,558	87
2011-12	12,800	12,718	82
2012-13	12,956	12,898	58
2008-09 to 2012-13	63,918	63,661	257
Notes: 1. Figures include incapacity-related income support directed at the short-term sick and long-term sick and disabled and severe disablement allowance. 2. Figures for ‘incapacity benefits/employment and support allowance’, 2008-09 to 2010-11, underlie the 2008 pre-Budget report Government spending plans. Figures for 2011-12 and 2012-13 are projections. 3. Figures for the impacts of employment and support allowance rates exclude the additional annually managed expenditure impacts on housing benefit and council tax benefit. 4. Figures relate to expenditure on working-age adult claimants. 5. Figures are on a resource accounting and budgeting basis. There may be differences between figures quoted in these tables and those quoted in Department for Work and Pensions Accounts. Source: DWP autumn 2008 forecasts and projections.

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much incapacity benefit was paid on average in each week of the last period for which figures are available. [238388]

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Jonathan Shaw: As at May 2008, the average weekly amount of incapacity benefit in payment was £89.63.

Incapacity Benefit: York

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in York moved off incapacity benefit into work in each of the last five years. [237604]

Mr. McNulty: The information is not available.

Income Support

Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what modelling his Department has carried out on different economic and labour market conditions in assessing the potential effect on (a) lone parents and (b) people claiming employment support allowance of changes in eligibility for income support; and if he will make a statement. [235923]

Mr. McNulty: The Department continues to assess the impact of an economic downturn on all our customers and our activities, and is developing plans right across its areas of responsibility to manage this. This includes those for whom the benefit arrangements are changing.

The Department's active labour market policies help these groups every working day and these remain just as important in the current economic circumstances.

Income Support: Mortgages

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 6 November 2008, Official Report, column 704W, on income support: mortgage costs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of households that will not be eligible under the proposed new arrangement due to a partner or spouse working 24 hours or more a week. [237257]

Kitty Ussher: We estimate that, on average over the past three years for which figures are available (2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07), there were 30,000 couples each year who interest but for the fact that their partner was in remunerative work of 24 hours or more a week.

These estimates are for those people whose circumstances are that: they are not working; they are members of a couple; they are owner-occupiers; they have a mortgage; they have a partner who works 24 hours a week, or more; and they would otherwise have had entitlement to income support or income-based jobseekers allowance. No account has been taken of the duration of claim, or the support for mortgage interest qualifying period.

Notes:

Figures are rounded to the nearest 10,000.

Source:

DWP Take Up 2006-07, 2005-06 and 2004-05 datasets

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people are receiving income support for mortgage interest payments; and how many received such payments in each of the last 10 years. [239884]

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