| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
31 Mar 2009 : Column 1155W—continued
Expenditure on cases assessed under the local reference rent currently cannot be separately identified.
All of the expenditure on local housing allowance is for housing in the private rented sector.
Almost all of the expenditure on cases assessed under the local reference rent is for housing in the private sector. Further estimates of expenditure on housing benefit for private rented accommodation are available on the Department’s website at:
Mortgages: Government Assistance
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what rate of interest his Department used in calculations of entitlements and payments under the Support for Mortgage Interest scheme in each of the last 12 months; and what rate it plans to use in each of the next three months. [266306]
Kitty Ussher: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer given to the hon. Member for Northavon (Steve Webb) on 4 March 2009, Official Report, column 1614, and to the written answers given to the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs. May) on 25 March 2009, Official Report, columns 456-57W.
Help is provided towards the interest on mortgages (known as Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI)) as part of income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance, income-related employment and support allowance, and state pension credit.
SMI is calculated using a standard interest rate. The following standard rates were used in the calculation of SMI over the period requested:
| Percentage | |
On 24 November 2008 the Chancellor announced that the standard interest rate would be maintained at 6.08 per cent. for six months.
We will publicise any further changes to the interest rate in due course.
Poverty: Children
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the effectiveness in reducing child poverty of the measures introduced in the 2008 Budget. [267038]
Kitty Ussher: Budget 2008 committed an additional £950 million to tackling child poverty by 2010-11. It included a number of measures that will make significant progress to further reducing child poverty, including increasing the first child rate of child benefit to £20 a week from April 2009 (brought forward to January 2009 in the 2008 pre-Budget report), disregarding child benefit in calculating income for housing and council taxi benefit from October 2009 and increasing the child element of the child tax credit by £50 a year above indexation from April 2009.
Taken together, measures announced since Budget 2007 will lift around a further 500,000 children out of poverty.
Budget 2008 also included introducing child poverty pilots to draw on new ideas to tackle child poverty over the long-term. A suite of nine pilots are in various stages of set-up or early delivery, and interim evidence is expected in early 2010.
Social Security Benefits
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what the average number of days taken to process new (a) council tax benefit and (b) housing benefit claims was in each local authority area in each month of the last two years; [264654]
(2) how many outstanding (a) council tax benefit and (b) housing benefit claims there were in each local authority area in each quarter of the last two years. [264655]
Kitty Ussher: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave him on 5 February 2009, Official Report, column 1419W.
Vacancies: Cleveland
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many job vacancies were advertised in the Middlesbrough, South and East Cleveland job centre in each month of 2008; and for what average length of time each job was advertised. [265334]
Mr. McNulty: The information is in the 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.
| T otal number of job vacancies advertised in the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland parliamentary constituency | |||
| Date | Notified vacancies live | Unfilled vacancies | Median duration |
| 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 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. 5. 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. 6. These figures are published at www.nomisweb.co.uk 7. The median duration is measured in days between notification and closure. 8. 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. Source: Jobcentre Plus Labour Market System | |||
Vocational Training
Mike Wood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many drug users have secured paid employment through progress2work; how many have maintained this employment for six months or more; and how many have claimed benefits again within (a) six months and (b) 12 months; [261076]
(2) how many drug users have secured unpaid employment through progress2work; and how many
have maintained this employment for six months or more. [261077]
Mr. McNulty: In 2007-08, 12,850 people joined progress2work, and 2,700 went on to find work. 1,450 were still recorded as being in work after 13 weeks. We do not record how many are still in work at six months or how many return to benefit after a period of employment.
Details of voluntary work undertaken by customers during the progress2work programme and subsequent to participation are not recorded.
Winter Fuel Payments
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of his Department’s expenditure on cold weather payments in 2008-09. [249443]
Kitty Ussher: The information for the whole of 2008-09 is not yet available.
A cold weather payment is made to an eligible customer when the average temperature has been recorded as, or is forecast to be, 0° C or below over seven consecutive days at the weather station linked to the customer’s postcode.
Based on the temperature criterion having been met up to 12 March 2009, the estimated expenditure will be £209 million.
Energy and Climate Change
Carbon Emissions
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the proportion of carbon dioxide emissions arising in the UK attributable to burning (a) coal and ( b) gas in each year since 1990. [266719]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Estimates of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use in the UK were published by DECC on 26 March 2009. These estimates can be found at
The following table shows the breakdown of these estimates by fuel type for the years 1990 to 2007, together with provisional estimates for 2008.
| CO2 emissions by fuel | ||||||||||
| Million tonnes of carbon dioxide | ||||||||||
| 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | |
| Million tonnes of carbon dioxide | |||||||||
| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008p | |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |