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9 Feb 2009 : Column 1642W—continued
Funeral Payments
Mr. Olner: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what definition his Department uses of respectful funeral, as referred to in his Department’s technical guidance SB16; [253655]
(2) what expenses can be claimed by benefit claimants under Other Funeral Expenses as referred to in his Department’s technical guidance SB16. [253656]
Kitty Ussher: There is no definition of a respectful funeral within the departmental guidance or in the legislation relating to funeral payments from the Social Fund. The person responsible for arranging the funeral may claim for items or services including:
the funeral director’s fees
church fee or minister’s fee
organist’s fee
flowers
cost of an urn
hygienic treatment.
This is not a complete list of items and services that may be claimed under “other funeral expenses”. A decision maker can award the necessary cost of certain specified items, including burial or cremation charges, in addition to an amount up to a limit of £700 for all other funeral expenses.
Housing Benefit
Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the expenditure which will arise as a result of the provision which makes excess payments of up to £15 to local housing allowance (LHA) claimants where their rent is less than the LHA rate applicable to their case in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11. [252160]
Kitty Ussher: It has been estimated that the expenditure which will arise as a result of the provision which makes excess payments of up to £15 to local housing allowance claimants where their rent is less than the local housing allowance rate applicable to their case may be as follows:
| Estimated cost of excess (£ million) | |
It is important to note that these estimates are subject to a number of assumptions and estimates are sensitive to small changes in these assumptions.
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his most recent estimate is of the amount of local housing allowance paid to tenants since April 2008 which has not been paid to landlords; and if he will make a statement. [253755]
Kitty Ussher [holding answer 2 February 2009]: The information is not yet available.
Incapacity Benefit: Forest of Dean
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of people in Forest of Dean constituency claiming incapacity benefit in respect of (a) mental and (b) physical impairments. [254526]
Jonathan Shaw [holding answer 5 February 2009]: The available information is in the following table.
| N umber of incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance claimants in Forest of Dean constituency by mental or physical impairment—May 2008 | |
| Number | |
| Notes 1. To qualify for incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance, claimants have to undertake a medical assessment of incapacity for work which is called the personal capability assessment. Therefore, the medical condition recorded on incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance claim form does not itself confer entitlement to incapacity benefits, so, for example, the decision for a customer claiming incapacity benefit on grounds of mental or behavioural disorders would be based on their ability to carry out the range of activities in the personal capability assessment; or on the effects of any associated mental health problems. Causes of incapacity are based on the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, published by the World Health Organisation. 2. Mental impairments are defined as organic, including symptomatic, mental disorders (F00-F09), mental and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance use (F10-F19), schizophrenia, scizotypal and delusional disorders (F20-F29), mood affective disorders (F30-F39), neurotic, stress related and somatoform disorders (F40-F48), behavioural syndromes associated with physiological disturbances and physical factors (F50-F59), disorders of adult personality and behaviour (F60-F69), mental retardation (F70-F79), disorders of psychological development (F80-F89), behavioural and emotional disorders with onset usually occurring in childhood and adolescence (F90-F98) and unspecified mental disorder (F99). All other medical conditions are included in the physical impairments category. 3. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Source: DWP Information Directorate 100 per cent. WPLS | |
Mortgage Relief
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many individuals have received support for mortgage interest in respect of mortgages taken out after October 2005 in each year since 2005-06; [253763]
(2) what his Department’s net expenditure on mortgage interest support for those on income support with mortgages taken out after October 2005 has been in each year since 2005-06. [253766]
Kitty Ussher: The information requested is not available.
Post Office Card Account
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 14 January 2009, Official Report, columns 765-6W, on the Post Office card account, on what basis it was decided that the financial details of the contract will remain commercially confidential. [254963]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The financial details of the contract are subject to the normal principles of commercial confidentiality. It would not therefore be appropriate to make this public as this information relates to the commercial interest of the Department and Post Office Ltd.
Poverty: Children
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the Department's estimate is of the number and proportion of children who were (a) in poverty and whose parents were out of work and (b) who had moved out of poverty as a result of their parents moving into work in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [242185]
Kitty Ussher: The information on the number and proportion of children who were in poverty and whose parents were out of work is shown in the following table.
| Number and risk of children living in households with incomes less than 60 per cent. of contemporary median household income whose parents are working age and not in work, before housing costs, United Kingdom | ||
| Number (million) | Proportion (percentage) | |
| Notes: 1. These statistics are based on households below average income, sourced from the Family Resources Survey and Low Income Dynamics data, sourced from the British Household Panel Survey. 2. Small changes should be treated with caution as these will be affected by sampling error and variability in non-response. 3. The reference period for households below average income figures is single financial years. 4. The income measures used to derive the estimates shown employ the same methodology as the Department for Work and Pensions publication ‘Households Below Average Income’ series, which uses net disposable household income, adjusted (or “equivalised”) for household size and composition, as an income measure as a proxy for standard of living. 5. For the households below average income series, incomes have been equivalised using OECD equalisation factors. 6. Numbers of children have been rounded to the nearest 100,000 children and proportions have been rounded to the nearest per cent. 7. Children have been counted as being in workless families where they are in lone parent families where the parent does not work or in couple families where both parents do not work. 8. Parents have been counted as being of working age if at least one is of working age (i.e. 64 or below for men, 59 or below for women). Source: Households Below Average Income | ||
Information on the number and proportion of children who had moved out of poverty as a result of their parents moving into work is not available. Poverty is a complex and multidimensional issue with many different factors acting at the same time in moving individuals into or out of poverty.
The risk of a child being in a low income household in the United Kingdom in 2006-07 where one or more adult works is much lower at 14 per cent. than for children in workless families, where the equivalent proportion is 61 per cent. as shown in the table. Data from the Low Income Dynamics publication illustrate that an increase in the number of workers or full-time workers in a family with children greatly increases the likelihood of that household moving out of low income. The Low Income Dynamics paper is available in the Library.
Prisoners Release
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been paid by his Department in subsistence payments to offenders on the end of custody licence scheme. [254027]
Mr. Hanson: I have been asked to reply.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 3 February 2008, Official Report, columns 1175-76W.
Unemployed
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many economically inactive people of working age wanted employment in each of the last five years. [254493]
Kevin Brennan: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated February 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many economically inactive people of working age wanted employment in each of the last five years. (254493)
The information requested is provided in the attached table. The estimates are consistent with those published in Table 13 of the Labour Market Statistics First Release Historical Supplement, which is available on the National Statistics website via the following link:
The estimates are derived from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
Vacancies
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many job vacancies there were in (a) Vale of York constituency, (b) North Yorkshire and (c) England in (i) 2006, (ii) 2007 and (iii) 2008. [254271]
Kevin Brennan: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many job vacancies there were in (a) Vale of York constituency, (b) North Yorkshire and (c) England in (i) 2006, (ii) 2007 and (iii) 2008. (254271)
The Office for National Statistics estimates the number of vacancies from the Vacancy Survey, but estimates below UK are not available from this source.
An alternative source of information on job vacancies is administrative data from Jobcentre Plus. This data only includes job vacancies notified to Jobcentre Plus and consequently is inconsistent with the UK estimates from the Vacancy Survey; however geographical breakdowns of this data are available.
Table 1 attached, shows the number of live unfilled job vacancies held by Jobcentre Plus for the Vale of York constituency, North Yorkshire and England in December of 2006, 2007 and 2008. Figures from Jobcentre Plus for Great Britain, along with three month averages for the UK from the Vacancy Survey have also been included for comparison.
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