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3 Mar 2009 : Column 1530W—continued
the projects and programmes currently on the Department’s Portfolio where the IT element of the project or programme results in the development and/or implementation of services that underpin the delivery of departmental business; and
with which EDS have involvement to a greater or lesser extent.
All the projects listed are managed by departmental officials.
Initiatives that are associated with ongoing system improvements or enhancements as part of business as usual are excluded.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what contracts his Department currently holds with EDS; and when each is due to expire. [260221]
Jonathan Shaw: The Department contracts with EDS for the following services:
Employment Services: Redundancy
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when the additional £3 million funding for the Jobcentre Plus Rapid Response Service will be available; how many additional staff will be employed by the Rapid Response Service as a result of the additional funding; and how the additional £3 million of funding will be allocated. [255183]
Mr. McNulty
[holding answer 9 February 2009]: 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 when the additional £3 million funding for the Jobcentre Plus Rapid Response Service will come into effect; how many additional staff will be employed by the Rapid Response Service as a result of the additional funding; and how the additional £3 million of funding will be allocated. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
An additional £3 million is available for the Rapid Response Service (RRS) in the 2008/09 financial year to support the expansion of the service. A further £6 million is also available for the next financial year, 2009/10. In total therefore there is now £6 million available for RRS in 2008/09 and £12 million in 2009/10.
The additional funds for 2008/09 are available already. This funding is to provide direct support to individuals facing redundancy rather than for extra Jobcentre Plus staffing.
I should set the position in its full context. We typically deliver our Rapid Response Service in partnership with other local agencies—for example local authorities, the Learning and Skills Council in England and others. It is very common for these partnerships to be able to provide the support and services individuals need from within their existing resources—for example, local Jobcentre Plus staff would make initial workplace presentations, existing publicly funded training opportunities would be made available to people.
In that context, our Rapid Response Service funding is designed to ensure that we are able to deliver support which individuals need in a specific situation, but which cannot be sourced from partners’ existing programmes and operations. Examples of the uses of RRS funding include providing individuals with a Skills Transfer Analysis, enabling individuals to undertake job-related training that is not available through partners’ existing programmes and supporting individuals to be able to take up a new job, for example with initial travel costs.
I should add that each Jobcentre Plus district has appointed a Rapid Response Manager to co-ordinate RRS support. Those posts have however been funded from the resources for extra staff announced for Jobcentre Plus in the Pre-Budget Report rather than from the additional funds for RRS.
We have allocated the additional RRS funding equally between each English region, Scotland, and Wales. A similar amount is held centrally in a contingency fund for those who need to call on any extra funds.
Incapacity Benefit
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many and what proportion of incapacity benefit claimants in each region have been in receipt of incapacity benefits for five years or more; and what those numbers are per 100,000 population in each region; [258096]
(2) how many and what proportion of incapacity benefit claimants had been in receipt of the benefit for five years or more in each of the last four quarters for which figures are available. [258097]
Jonathan Shaw [holding answer 23 February 2009]: The information is in the following tables.
| The number and proportion of working age incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance claimants of over five years by Government Office Region and per 100,000 of the working age population | |||
| Government Office Region | Caseload of recipients over five years | Proportion of total caseload ( percentage ) | Claimants of over five years per 100,000 of working age population |
| Notes: 1. Caseload figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Durations refer to incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance awards. 3. Working age population figures are for GB only, taken from the Office for National Statistics mid year population estimate for 2007. 4. Data available from www.nomis.co.uk. Source: Department for Work and Pensions Information Directorate, 100 per cent. Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study | |||
| The number and percentage of working age incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance claimants who have been receiving benefit for more than five years in each of the last four quarters for which figures are available | ||||||||
| November 2007 | February 2008 | May 2008 | August 2008 | |||||
| Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | |
| Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Durations refer to incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance awards. 3. Data available from www.nomis.co.uk Source: Department for Work and Pensions Information Directorate, 100 per cent. Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study. | ||||||||
Invalid Vehicles: Elderly
Mr. Newmark: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent assessment his Department has made of provision for motor assistance for those aged over 65 years who are ineligible for the Motability scheme. [260382]
Jonathan Shaw: No recent assessment has been made specifically of the provision of motor assistance for those aged over 65 years. Recipients of benefits paid to those aged over 65 years are free to spend their benefit according to their own priorities.
Jobseeker’s Allowance
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how long on average it took to process a claim for jobseeker’s allowance in the last four weeks for which figures are available; and how many claims took over 14 days to process in this period. [253727]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 2 February 2009]: 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.
Members: Correspondence
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he plans to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Northavon of 29 October 2008 on behalf of Alison Crump, regarding legal advice given to those completing benefit forms. [259081]
Jonathan Shaw: A reply was sent to the hon. Member on 26 February 2009.
Social Security Benefits: Disabled
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 24 February 2009, Official Report, column 22WS, on disability benefits, what changes his Department has made to the eligibility criteria for payment of disability benefits as a consequence of the consideration of the European Court of Justice decision of 18 October 2007. [260373]
Jonathan Shaw: There have been no changes to the eligibility criteria for payment of disability benefits applied domestically, as a consequence of the European Court of Justice judgment of 18 October 2007.
For people going to live or already living in another European economic area (EEA) state or Switzerland, their claims must be considered under the provisions of the sickness benefit chapter of the European Regulation 1408/71. For these customers, the ordinary residence and presence conditions, which apply domestically, are not applied. Other domestic conditions of entitlement, such as the disability conditions and the past presence test, still apply. The latter test, under domestic legislation, requires a customer to be present in Great Britain for not less than 26 out of the last 52 weeks and it applies for every day that a customer claims benefit. However, for people going to live or already living in another EEA state or Switzerland, the test has been modified: for customers taking the benefit away with them, it is last applied on the date of ‘export’ and for customers claiming from another EEA state or Switzerland it is applied only once, on the date on which entitlement to benefit can be established.
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