| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
25 Mar 2009 : Column 467W—continued
Social Security Benefits: Voluntary Work
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what information his Department provides to claimants on their rights to undertake voluntary work and the effect of such work on their entitlement to (a) incapacity benefit and (b) jobseeker’s allowance. [263600]
Mr. McNulty: Working-age people in receipt of all benefits may do unlimited voluntary work, provided they continue to meet the usual benefit entitlement conditions.
Jobcentre Plus provides information on the benefit conditions relating to volunteering in a range of ways including: through a comprehensive leaflet covering incapacity benefit, jobseeker’s allowance and other benefits; through its internet web site which has links to advice on volunteering from other organisations; and through its network of local advisers based in Jobcentre Plus offices.
Vacancies: Chelmsford
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many job vacancies were notified to Jobcentre Plus branches in (a) West Chelmsford constituency and (b) the Chelmsford local authority area in each of the last 12 months. [261796]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 9 March 2009]: The information is in the following table.
| Vacancies notified to Jobcentre Plus in West Chelmsford constituency and Chelmsford local authority area | ||||
| Live unfilled vacancies | Notified vacancies | |||
| Date | West Chelmsford parliamentary constituency | Chelmsford local authority | West Chelmsford parliamentary constituency | Chelmsford local authority |
| 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. These are not whole economy figures. Coverage relates just to vacancies notified to Jobcentre Plus and as such represent a market share of vacancies throughout the whole economy. This proportion varies over time, according to the occupation of the vacancy and industry of the employer, and by local area. Comprehensive estimates of all job vacancies (not just those notified to Jobcentre Plus) are available from the monthly ONS Vacancy Survey since April 2001, based on a sample of some 6,000 enterprises. However, the ONS survey is currently designed to provide national estimates only. 4. Notified vacancies. Monthly data on the inflow of newly notified vacancies to Jobcentre Plus. 5. The stocks of Live unfilled vacancies reflect more accurately job opportunities available via Jobcentre Plus. In the case of unfilled vacancies, use of the figures on live vacancies is recommended (i.e. excluding suspended vacancies), and this is the default option. Live vacancies may still include some vacancies which have already been filled or are otherwise no longer open. 6. To provide a geographic breakdown, in most cases the postcode of the vacancy is used to allocate the vacancy to a local area. Where this is missing or invalid, the employers' postcode or the postcode of the local Jobcentre Plus office is used. 7. These figures are published at www.nomisweb.co.uk 8. Parliamentary constituencies and local authority areas are often a poor match for local labour markets. The number and range of jobs available to people within normal travel to work distances often extend well beyond immediate constituency and local authority boundaries. Source: Jobcentre Plus Labour Market System | ||||
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many job vacancies have been notified to the Chelmsford Jobcentre Plus in each of the last 12 months. [265403]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 20 March 2009]: The information is in the following table.
| Vacancies notified to Chelmsford Jobcentre Plus Office in the last 12 months | |
| Number | |
| Notes: 1. Data are unrounded. 2. These are not whole economy figures. Coverage relates just to vacancies notified to Jobcentre Plus and as such represent a market share of vacancies throughout the whole economy. This proportion varies over time, according to the occupation of the vacancy and industry of the employer, and by local area. Comprehensive estimates of all job vacancies (not just those notified to Jobcentre Plus) are available from the monthly ONS Vacancy Survey since April 2001, based on a sample of some 6,000 enterprises. However, the ONS survey is currently designed to provide national estimates only. 3. Notified vacancies are the monthly data on the inflow of newly notified vacancies to Jobcentre Plus. 4. These figures are published at www.nomisweb.co.uk S ource: Jobcentre Plus Labour Market System. | |
Vacancies: Wales
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many job vacancies advertised by each public sector employer there have been in each Jobcentre Plus district in Wales at each salary band in each week since 1 January 2009. [264425]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 18 March 2009]: The information is not collated centrally.
Voluntary Work
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what restrictions to entitlement to jobseeker’s allowance are applied to individuals who are volunteers. [262957]
Mr. McNulty: Working-age people in receipt of all benefits may do unlimited voluntary work, provided they continue to meet the usual benefit entitlement conditions. Jobseeker’s allowance claimants must remain available for and actively seeking work, continue to attend mandatory interviews with their Jobcentre Plus adviser and take part in any mandatory work-focused activity. They are also requested to inform their personal adviser that they are volunteering.
Provided they fulfil these conditions, jobseeker’s allowance claimants may do unlimited voluntary work and have no restrictions applied to their benefit entitlement as a result.
Unlike most jobseekers, who must be available for employment immediately, those undertaking voluntary work are allowed 48 hours notice to attend a job interview
and one week’s notice to take up employment. If they receive reimbursement for any expenses incurred while volunteering, this does not affect their benefit entitlement.
Communities and Local Government
Council Housing: Rents
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many local authorities are planning an increase in (a) average guideline rent and (b) actual average rent equal to or less than 3.1 per cent. in 2009-10. [266487]
Mr. Iain Wright: This information will not be available until local authorities' consultation responses have been received to a draft Amending 2009-10 Housing Revenue Account Subsidy Determination.
Consultation will be for four weeks commencing in the week beginning 23 March. We aim to publish the final Amending Determination in May.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the (a) average guideline rent increase and (b) actual average rent increase will be in each local authority in 2009-10. [266488]
Mr. Iain Wright: Information on average guideline rent increases for each local housing authority, reflecting a national average increase of 6.2 per cent., is contained in the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) subsidy determination 2009-10 which is on the Department's website.
Information on average guideline rents for individual authorities based on a revised national average guideline increase of 3.1 per cent. will be issued for consultation this week as part of an Amending HRA subsidy determination for 2009-10.
Local authorities' actual average rent increases will not be available until after the end of consultation on the Amending Determination.
Council Housing: Standards
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment she has made of the effect in the reduction of council house rent rises on the ability of local authorities to meet the decent homes standard. [265967]
Mr. Iain Wright: The reduction in guideline rents should have no impact on decent homes delivery, as any rent reductions in line with the proposal we have made will be covered by changes in local authority subsidy payments. The ability of a local authority to deliver decent homes is dependent on the level of capital repair and maintenance allowances and resources available, and the condition of its housing stock.
Council Tax
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the cumulative increase in band D council tax was for each local authority in England in the period from 2007 to 2010, ranked from lowest to highest. [265859]
John Healey: Details of the increase in band D council tax for each local authority in England in the period from 2007-08 and 2008-09 are available on the Communities and Local Government website at:
Data for 2009-10 will not be available until after 26 March 2009.
Departmental Detergents
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will make it her policy to ensure that no cleaning products or ingredients of cleaning products used by her Department have been tested on animals. [261132]
Mr. Khan: Cleaning services for the Department's HQ building are provided under the integrated facilities management contract with MITIE. They have confirmed with their suppliers that none of the cleaning products used have been tested on animals.
Eco-towns
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) what estimate she has made of the costs of the improvements to the A391 in respect of the St. Austell eco-town development; [265273]
(2) what estimate she has made of the likely costs of the on-site utilities to be proposed for the eco-town at Pennbury; [265274]
(3) what estimate she has made of the cost of the rail strategy of the Ford Airfield eco-town proposal; [265276]
(4) what assessment she has made of each of the base case assumptions made in respect of each proposed eco-town development as part of her Department's financial viability study. [265286]
Margaret Beckett: We are still consulting on the shortlisted locations, so at this stage in the process we have not undertaken detailed assessments. However, the Financial Viability Study, which we published on 5 March 2009, provides an initial high level assessment on whether an eco-town could be economically viable and as part of this looks at transport costs. We will consider this along with consultation responses and the further assessment work that has been undertaken when we take decisions on the final shortlist of locations with potential to be an eco-town.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much her Department spent on its financial viability study for eco-towns, broken down by cost category. [265287]
Margaret Beckett: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 23 February 2009, Official Report, column 108W, which sets out the costs for the eco-towns programme, including for the work on financial assessment to date. The recently published Financial Viability Study was an output from this work and carried out for us by a team of external advisers.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |