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26 Mar 2009 : Column 612W—continued

Employment: Disabled

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether the Improving Disability Employment Advisory Service programme will be available to (a) jobseeker’s allowance claimants and (b) employment and support allowance claimants. [262644]

Jonathan Shaw: Yes, the new specialist disability employment programme will be available, on a voluntary basis, to eligible claimants of jobseeker’s allowance and employment and support allowance.

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether those facing increased obligations under the employment and support allowance regime who are in need of specialist disability employment support will have a right to access the Improving Disability Employment Advisory Service programme whether or not they receive a referral via Pathways to Work. [262645]

Jonathan Shaw: The new specialist disability employment programme will be available, on a voluntary basis, to eligible claimants of employment and support allowance whether or not they receive a referral via Pathways to Work.

Incapacity Benefit: Yorkshire and the Humber

Jeff Ennis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) Barnsley and (b) Doncaster have claimed incapacity benefit in each year since 1997. [264553]

Jonathan Shaw: The information is in the following table.

Number of incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance claimants in Doncaster and Barnsley local authorities in each year since 1997
As at August each year	Barnsley	Doncaster
1997	21,300	22,700
1998	21,000	21,700
1999	19,390	19,640
2000	19,240	19,660
2001	19,600	19,760
2002	19,700	19,520
2003	19,480	19,280
2004	19,090	18,910
2005	18,360	18,090
2006	17,780	17,720
2007	16,970	17,440
2008	16,290	16,850
Notes: 1. 100 per cent. figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 5 per cent. figures are rounded to the nearest 100 and have been uprated to be consistent with Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study data. 2. Data is published at: www.nomisweb.co.uk Source: Data pre-1999: Department for Work and Pensions, Information Directorate, 5 per cent. sample and Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study data. Data post-1999: Department for Work and Pensions Information Directorate 100 per cent. Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study.

26 Mar 2009 : Column 613W

Mortgages: Government Assistance

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people identified as unemployed in (a) Hemel Hempstead and (b) Hertfordshire have received assistance from his Department and its agencies with the cost of meeting mortgage interest repayments in the last six months. [265802]

Kitty Ussher: The information requested is not available.

Pathways to Work and Workstep

Derek Conway: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the comparative effectiveness of prime contractors on the Pathways to Work programme and Workstep. [263028]

Jonathan Shaw: Provider-led pathways commenced in December 2007 and now operate in 60 per cent. of the country. Provider-led pathways operate under the Department for Work and Pensions standard prime contractor model.

Workstep has been available nationally since 2001 but does not use the prime contractor model. The service is delivered through a network of providers from the range of private sector, voluntary organisations and local authorities. No comparison of the two models has therefore been undertaken for these two programmes.

Pension Credit: Greater London

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioner households were in receipt of pension credit in each London local authority in (a) 2003-04 and (b) 2008-09; and what the average payment to (i) single pensioner households and (ii) pensioner couples was in each of those years. [260020]

26 Mar 2009 : Column 614W

Ms Rosie Winterton: The information is in the following tables.

Table 1: Households in receipt of pension credit in each London local authority
Local authority	November 2003	August 2008
Barking and Dagenham	6,400	8,520
Barnet	8,860	11,470
Bexley	5,280	7,310
Brent	9,660	12,440
Bromley	6,950	9,100
Camden	7,530	8,930
City of London	140	170
Croydon	8,880	11,360
Ealing	9,290	12,280
Enfield	9,420	11,780
Greenwich	7,480	9,280
Hackney	9,500	10,720
Hammersmith and Fulham	5,200	6,640
Haringey	8,410	10,210
Harrow	6,280	8,290
Havering	6,710	9,460
Hillingdon	5,970	8,130
Hounslow	6,430	8,240
Islington	7,800	9,510
Kensington and Chelsea	4,670	5,940
Kingston-upon-Thames	3,020	3,990
Lambeth	9,000	11,390
Lewisham	8,390	10,360
Merton	4,510	5,720
Newham	10,290	12,110
Redbridge	7,320	9,800
Richmond-upon-Thames	3,370	4,450
Southwark	9,100	11,370
Sutton	4,450	5,770
Tower Hamlets	10,490	10,950
Waltham Forest	7,970	9,740
Wandsworth	8,030	9,780
Westminster, City of	6,720	8,240
Total	233,480	293,470

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Table 2: Average pension credit payment to single pensioner households and pensioner couples
	November 20 03			August 2008
Local authority	Total	With partner	No partner	Total	With partner	No partner
Barking and Dagenham	49.64	61.38	47.08	59.64	75.89	55.49
Barnet	60.54	83.96	55.24	75.03	99.02	69.27
Bexley	44.22	56.59	41.49	54.94	71.93	50.87
Brent	70.02	89.40	64.90	82.02	101.25	76.95
Bromley	44.16	56.77	41.91	56.43	69.54	53.75
Camden	64.12	84.86	60.58	79.76	103.96	75.73
City of London	62.75	72.67	61.63	77.46	80.69	77.08
Croydon	52.79	68.91	49.25	67.33	86.76	62.80
Ealing	67.77	87.90	62.69	80.99	103.81	75.10
Enfield	56.54	74.71	51.11	71.08	89.70	65.26
Greenwich	53.17	71.55	49.22	67.26	86.72	62.92
Hackney	67.43	89.57	62.80	81.55	110.97	75.59
Hammersmith and Fulham	60.19	81.26	57.06	74.17	98.82	70.48
Haringey	64.17	83.43	59.64	78.73	100.93	73.38
Harrow	70.90	95.03	63.53	85.00	111.87	76.78
Havering	42.30	50.61	40.53	51.78	62.40	48.96
Hillingdon	54.06	72.74	49.78	65.60	88.61	59.91
Hounslow	60.69	81.28	55.58	73.62	96.67	67.44
Islington	63.98	82.53	60.37	75.79	95.11	72.09
Kensington and Chelsea	64.91	86.63	61.95	80.88	104.93	77.11
Kingston-upon-Thames	50.46	75.12	45.42	64.23	95.33	57.97
Lambeth	61.29	80.93	58.06	73.11	91.61	70.20
Lewisham	53.01	68.80	50.26	65.99	86.29	62.36
Merton	52.36	69.91	48.33	65.64	84.98	60.74
Newham	66.14	85.50	60.01	80.42	102.29	73.42
Redbridge	58.95	78.54	53.50	73.88	95.51	67.17
Richmond-upon-Thames	48.01	65.41	45.29	61.87	83.61	58.32
Southwark	57.99	76.80	54.58	71.83	91.90	68.23
Sutton	44.65	59.24	42.02	56.83	73.21	53.55
Tower Hamlets	67.85	90.57	59.22	82.80	109.02	74.67
Waltham Forest	56.80	74.17	52.29	68.48	86.48	63.44
Wandsworth	56.88	76.90	53.23	69.29	87.54	65.94
Westminster, City of	67.21	93.05	62.57	83.28	112.91	78.11
Average amount	59.04	78.60	54.63	72.11	93.32	67.19
Notes: 1. The number of households in receipt are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Household recipients are those people who claim pension credit either for themselves only or on behalf of a household. 3. Average weekly payments are shown as pound per week and are rounded to the nearest penny. 4. Totals may not sum due to rounding. Source: DWP Information Directorate Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study 100 per cent. data.

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