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2 Feb 2009 : Column 852W—continued
Departmental Pay
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many bonuses to staff were paid by his Department in each year since 1998; how much was so paid in each year; and for what purposes these bonuses were awarded. [248728]
Jonathan Shaw: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was formed in 2001 as a result of machinery of government changes. Therefore it is only possible to provide the information requested from the 2002-03 financial year, which is when pay arrangements including those for bonuses were harmonised for all DWP employees.
End of Year Performance Bonuses
DWP employees below the senior civil service are eligible for an annual individual performance bonus if they attain a ‘Top’, ‘Higher’ or ‘Majority’ rating under the annual performance and development system. The bonus awarded is determined by the employee’s pay band and the performance level achieved.
For the senior civil service, end of year bonuses are determined by the relevant DWP SCS Pay Committee.
* Performance awards from the year 2007-08 were payable in July of the financial year 2008-09. A total of £23.32 million has been paid. This is broken down as follows:
| Table 1: Department Total | ||
| Financial year | Total number of recipients | Total paid (£ million) |
| Table 2: Total below SCS | ||
| Financial year | Total number of recipients | Total paid (£ million) |
| Table 3: Total SCS | ||
| Financial year | Total number of recipients | Total paid (£ million) |
| Notes: 1. The information in tables 1 and 2 is based on the number of employees recorded on the DWP payroll systems as having received a qualifying performance mark. These are headcount. 2. Some individuals may have received more than one type of bonus payment in the year, which is why the information has been presented separately and not as an aggregated total. 3. The performance bonus is paid in the financial year following the performance year of 1 April to 31 March. 4. The total amount paid includes employers national insurance contribution (ERNIC). 5. In-year cash bonus data was previously held on a separate IT system. Data from this system can only be obtained from a third party and there would be a cost ascribed to this provision. This would bring the cost of answering this PQ to above the threshold considered proportionate. | ||
Special Bonus and Voucher Payments
Individuals may also be entitled to special bonus payments either as cash or retail vouchers. These are one-off recognition awards, payable at any time during the performance year and are not linked to the annual pay award. Payments are made to recognise exceptional achievements beyond what would normally be expected.
The cost for voucher payments was £0.9 million in 2006-07 (14,392 vouchers issued), £1.77 million in 2007-08 (31,237 vouchers were issued) and £1.03 million in 2008-09 (28,869 vouchers issued). Some individuals might have received more than one voucher.
It is not possible to provide separate data for in-year cash bonuses across three years. However, based on 2007-08 payments, the cost in a typical year is around £2.7 million paid to approximately 11,250 individuals.
These figures are the best available.
Income Support: Mortgages
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether the two-year time limit on claims for income support for mortgage interest for jobseeker’s allowance claimants will apply to existing claimants. [249368]
Mr. McNulty: The two year limit on payment of support for mortgage interest for income-based jobseeker’s allowance claimants will not apply to existing customers who started to receive payment of mortgage interest under the previous rules that existed before 5 January 2009.
Jobcentre Plus: Closures
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many Jobcentre Plus offices have closed in each of the last five years. [251467]
Mr. McNulty: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the acting chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Mel Groves. I have asked him to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking how many Jobcentre Plus offices have closed in each of the last five years. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
The following table provides the information you have requested:
| Year | Jobcentre Plus offices open to the public and subsequently closed |
| Source: Jobcentre Plus | |
We have modernised our Jobcentre network to improve customer service, rationalising our estate to provide excellent high street coverage and a single, integrated customer facing office, at the same time reducing cost to the tax payer. We remain the largest office network in Government with 744 modern Jobcentres which are supported by 31 contact centres and 79 main benefit processing centres.
Increasingly, our services (in common with most large, modern organisations) are now also delivered through the telephone and internet. New claims to benefit are predominantly taken by telephone with some taken on-line. This has brought our customer facing services together in a more coherent and integrated network.
In December, I asked the customer service directors in our regions to review their service delivery plans for every Jobcentre Plus District in the light of the current economic conditions and welfare reform changes planned for the next two to three years. As an immediate measure, I decided to suspend proposed further Jobcentre closures while the current economic uncertainties exist, which will allow us to increase our capacity to deliver services to those in need of help.
Local Employment Partnerships
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many jobseekers in each region have found (a) employment and (b) sustained employment with employers who have signed-up to local employment partnerships in each quarter since local employment partnerships were established. [248440]
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have been placed in work through local employment partnerships in each year since such partnerships were established, broken down by Jobcentre Plus area. [249394]
Mr. McNulty:
Over 90,000 people have found work to date through local employment partnerships (LEPs). The following table shows the number of people who found employment through LEPs in the 2007-08 operational year ending March 2008, and for each of the three
following quarters ending June, September and December. The number of people given face-to-face help in Jobcentre Plus offices is shown by Jobcentre Plus Region; those
helped following telephone contact with Jobcentre Plus are shown separately in the contact centre totals. An evaluation of the policy will examine sustained employment.
| The number of people finding work through local employment partnerships by region | |||||
| Numbers finding work through local employment partnerships during: | |||||
| period to end-March 2008 | quarter ending June 2008 | quarter ending Sept 2008 | quarter ending Dec 2008 | Total finding work to December 2008 | |
| Source: Jobcentre Plus administrative data | |||||
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