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25 Mar 2009 : Column 456W—continued
Housing Benefit: Internet
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department spent on its housing benefit website in each of the last three years. [266282]
Kitty Ussher: The Department provides web pages about the administration of housing benefit for local authority staff on its corporate website
There are no separately quantifiable ongoing running costs for this section of the website.
Maintenance of DWP websites is mostly carried out by the Department's own in-house digital media team. It is not possible for us to quantify internal staff costs, because in most cases, staff are engaged in more than one role. In addition, we are unable to establish accurately our infrastructure costs because they form part of a wider departmental IT contract.
This section of the website was redeveloped in 2008 to make it easier for local authority staff to use. A contractor was employed specifically to undertake this work at a cost of £25,200.
DWP is currently working with the COI to develop a standardised method for quantifying website costs across Government. We will be implementing this standard from March 2009 in line with the current timetable.
Income Support: Mortgages
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what estimate he has made of the number of people who are receiving support for mortgage interest payments at a level below the standard rate of 6.08 per cent. and the rates at which such people are receiving payment; [254588]
(2) when he expects that the IT system faults affecting the level at which support for mortgage interest payments are received to be rectified; and when he expects all recipients to receive the correct level of payment; [254612]
(3) when his Department received reports that faults in its IT systems had caused errors in payments of support for mortgage interest; when he was informed of the faults; and what steps his Department has taken to rectify the errors; [254617]
(4) what estimate he has made of the average weekly underpayment of Support for Mortgage Interest for those not being paid at the standard interest rate of 6.08 per cent. as a result of the recent IT systems' failures in his Department; [255521]
(5) what plans he has to ensure that customers receiving underpayments of Support for Mortgage Interest (a) do not fall into arrears, (b) do not receive a poor credit rating and (c) are not put at risk of repossession as a result of IT systems' failure in his Department. [255524]
Kitty Ussher: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Northavon (Steve Webb) on 4 March 2009, Official Report, column 1614W.
When the Chancellor's decision was made to help our customers by keeping the support for mortgage interest rate at 6.08 per cent. we had already reprogrammed the IT which governs the assessment and payment of DWP benefits to implement the 1.5 per cent. reduction in the base rate announced by the Bank of England on
6 November. This was not a failure, but part of normal processing which could not be reversed without significant risk of disrupting the normal running of our IT systems, most critically the uprating of benefits—affecting many more cases than just those getting Support for Mortgage Interest. The solution we adopted was designed to reduce the risk of disruption while ensuring customers were received the extra money as speedy as possible.
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether all the people receiving Support for Mortgage Interest payments at a level below the standard interest rate of 6.08 per cent. as a result of IT systems’ failures in his Department have been informed of the problem. [255520]
Kitty Ussher: The amount of Support for Mortgage Interest is calculated by applying a Standard Interest Rate (SIR) to the capital outstanding on the mortgage SIR was based on the Bank of England base rate plus an additional 1.58 per cent. However, the Government were concerned that significant cuts in the base rate would disadvantage customers on benefit if they were reflected in the calculation of Support for Mortgage Interest, but not in the interest rates on their mortgages.
Given these exceptional circumstances, the Chancellor announced on 24 November 2008 in the pre-Budget report that the SIR should remain at 6.08 per cent. for six months to help our customers.
When the Chancellor’s decision was made, we had already re-programmed the IT which governs the assessment and payment of DWP benefits to implement the 1.5 per cent. reduction in the base rate announced by the Bank of England on 6 November 2008. This was not a failure, but part of normal processing which could not be reversed without significant risk of disrupting the normal running of our IT systems, most critically the uprating of benefits—affecting many more cases than just those getting support for mortgage interest. The solution we adopted was designed to reduce the risk of disruption whilst ensuring customers received their full entitlement.
Customers who were receiving support for mortgage interest will have received notifications generated by our IT system that their interest payments decreased from 14 December 2008. By now they should have received further notifications telling them about the increase in their benefit to reflect our decision to keep the interest rate higher than it would otherwise have been for six months.
Guidance has been issued to the Pension, Disability and Carers Service and Jobcentre Plus staff, to help them identify and correct benefit claims with housing costs that have been affected by the reduction. Telephony staff were fully briefed to deal with queries from members of the public, and to concentrate efforts on readjusting the effected cases.
Mortgage lenders, via the Council of Mortgage Lenders, have also been advised about the situation to ensure that lenders are aware of exactly what is happening.
Detailed guidance has been issued to local authorities so that action is taken to protect council tax benefit claims.
Jobcentre Plus
Mrs. May:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the most recent Jobcentre Plus workload forecasts updated on 31 January are for the volume of claims for (a) jobseeker's allowance, (b)
income support, (c) incapacity benefit or employment and support allowance and (d) Social Fund loans for each quarter up to 2015, broken down by (i) region, (ii) local authority, (iii) constituency and (iv) Jobcentre Plus district; what the total costs are expected to be; and if he will make a statement. [261024]
Mr. McNulty: The information requested is not available.
Jobcentre Plus: Lerwick
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many job vacancies were advertised in the Lerwick job centre in each month of 2008; and for what average length of time each job was advertised in that year. [260291]
Mr. McNulty: The information is in the following table, and provides separate data for unfilled and notified vacancies to give the fullest picture of the number of Jobcentre Plus vacancies in any particular constituency. The labour market is dynamic and many new vacancies are filled so quickly they do not appear in the statistics for live unfilled vacancies, which are based on a snapshot of the vacancies available on a particular day.
The coverage of these figures relates only to Jobcentre Plus notified and unfilled vacancies. Many vacancies come up through other recruitment channels and the proportion accounted for by Jobcentre Plus is likely to vary over time, according to the occupation of the vacancy and industry of the employer, and by local area. Estimates of the number of unfilled job vacancies across the economy as a whole are available from the monthly ONS Vacancy Survey, based on a sample of some 6,000 enterprises. However, the ONS survey is currently designed to provide national estimates only.
In addition, it should be noted that parliamentary constituencies are often a poor match to the area covered by the local labour market. The number and range of jobs available to people within normal travel to work distances often extends well beyond immediate constituency boundaries.
| Job vacancies advertised in Lerwick Jobcentre Plus offices in 2008 | |||
| Live unfilled vacancies | Notified vacancies | Median duration (days between notification and closure] | |
| Notes: 1. Data are unrounded. 2. Changes to Jobcentre Plus vacancy handling procedures have led to a major discontinuity in the vacancy statistics pre and post May 2006. Consequently, care should be taken in interpreting time-series data. 3. Notified vacancies. Monthly data on the inflow of newly notified vacancies to Jobcentre Plus. 4. The median duration (in days) is calculated by ranking all the vacancies in order of ascending duration and taking the middle value. Half the vacancies will have a duration greater than the median, and half will have a duration less than the median. For most purposes, the median will give a more representative measure of the average duration; a mean figure tends to be distorted by a small number of vacancies that have very long durations. 5. These figures are published at www.nomisweb.co.uk Source: Jobcentre Plus Labour Market System | |||
Jobcentre Plus: Manpower
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many of the 6,000 additional Jobcentre Plus staff announced on 25 November 2008 had been recruited by the latest date for which figures are available; and by what date he expects all of those staff to have been recruited. [262843]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 11 March 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 how many of the 6,000 additional Jobcentre Plus staff announced on 25 November 2008 had been recruited on the latest date for which figures are available; and by what date he expects all of those staff to have been recruited. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Recruitment to deal with increased work load has already started and by the end of March 2009 we will have around 4,000 more staff than in our original Spending Review plans. The funding of an additional 6,000 Jobcentre Plus staff announced in the Pre Budget Report was specifically for 2009-10 onwards. We will be running major national recruitment campaigns for Personal Advisers and Interventions staff from 13 March 2009.
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff were employed in Jobcentre Plus in each year since its establishment. [262844]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 11 March 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 how many staff were employed in Jobcentre Plus in each year since its establishment. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
We are unable to provide information prior to April 2003.
The table below provides the number of full-time equivalents employed each year since April 2003 and up to January 2009.
| Staff employed by Jobcentre Plus since April 2003 | |
| Full time equivalent staff | |
| Note: Headcount figures are quoted in full-time equivalents using the Office for National Statistics criteria for counting headcount. Sources: 1. Jobcentre Plus Management Information Portal. Information not available prior to April 2003 due to data capacity reasons. 2. Data for March 2008 and January 2009 is provided from “Dataview”, an electronic extract from the DWP Resource Management system. | |
Jobcentre Plus: Training
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the adequacy of training a Jobcentre Plus financial assessor receives before starting work. [259054]
Mr. McNulty: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus, Mel Groves. I have asked the Acting Chief Executive to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking what assessment he has made of the adequacy of training a Jobcentre Plus financial assessor receives before starting work. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
The adequacy of all Jobcentre Plus training products, including those for financial assessors is monitored closely during all stages of development (including rigorous quality assurance stages) by colleagues from policy branch and subject matter experts who are fully involved in every stage of the development lifecycle.
Additionally, the products are regularly discussed by our Senior Operational Managers at national, regional and district levels to ensure that the quality of the learning we provide is maintained.
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