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1 Jun 2009 : Column 97W—continued
Incapacity Benefit
Mrs. May:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of claims for incapacity benefit and employment and support
allowance took (a) fewer than five days, (b) between five and 10 days, (c) between 10 and 20 days, (d) between 20 and 30 days, (e) between 30 and 50 days, (f) between 50 and 100 days and (g) over 100 days to process in each of the last (i) 12 months and (ii) five years for which information is available. [266128]
Jonathan Shaw: 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 right hon. Member with the information requested.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has asked me to respond to your question asking how many and what proportion of claims for Incapacity Benefit and Employment and Support Allowance took (a) fewer than five days, (b) between five and 10 days, (c) between 10 and 20 days, (d) between 20 and 30 days, (e) between 30 and 50 days, (f) between 50 and 100 days and (g) over 100 days to process in each of the last (i) 12 months and (ii) five years for which information is available. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Our benefit processing system records, in terms of volumes and percentages, the number of Incapacity Benefit claims processed within the following time bands—in 10 days, in 40 days and over 40 days. The data provided below regarding the volumes is displayed cumulatively for the first two time band sets—up to 10 days and then up to 40 days. The 40 days and over column shows the remaining claims processed beyond this time period. The percentage figures are not cumulative and are subject to rounding.
This data has been available since 2006. I have provided you with the yearly total for 2006/07 and 2007/08. I have also provided you with the in-month data for the last 12 months.
No information regarding Employment and Support Allowance will be released until the first set of official statistics is published in the Summer.
Annex
| Incapacity Benefit claims processing | ||||||
| Incapacity Benefit processed in | Percentage | |||||
| Month | 10 days | 11-40 days | 40+ days | 1-10 days | 11-40 days | 40 days+ |
John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people receiving benefits as a result of a long-term illness had had their case reviewed by Jobcentre Plus or its contractor ATOS by 1 March 2009. [270005]
Jonathan Shaw [holding answer 22 April 2009]: Information about the number of people with a long-term illness who have had their benefit entitlement reviewed by Jobcentre Plus is not collated centrally. Jobcentre Plus may ask Atos Healthcare for a reassessment as part of a review, but Atos Healthcare does not itself review cases.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what percentage of adults receive a form of incapacity benefit. [272475]
Jonathan Shaw: The information requested is as follows:
| The number and proportion of adult incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance claimants in Great Britain: August 2008 | |
| Total claimants aged 16 and over | Percentage of population aged 16 and over |
| Notes: 1. Incapacity benefit and severe disablement allowance claimants also include people receiving income support on grounds of incapacity. 2. Caseload is rounded to the nearest 10 and percentage to one decimal place. 3. Adult incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance claimants are those aged 16 and over. 4. Percentages have been calculated based on Office for National Statistics population estimates. Source: DWP Information Directorate 100 per cent WPLS | |
Jobcentre Plus
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many branches of Jobcentre Plus there are in (a) urban and (b) rural areas. [271231]
Mr. McNulty: We do not separately categorise Jobcentre Plus offices open to the public by urban, semi-rural or rural areas but our public facing network is designed to provide reasonable access to our services throughout Great Britain.
Jobseeker's Allowance
Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been claimed by former (a) heavy goods vehicle drivers, (b) van drivers and (c) other logistics workers in jobseeker's allowance in each of the last 12 months. [276155]
Mr. McNulty: The Department does not collect expenditure information at the requested level of occupational group so no information on the amount of benefit claimed by heavy goods vehicle drivers, van drivers, and other logistics workers is available.
Jobseeker's Allowance: Bristol
Stephen Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what the average processing time for jobseeker's allowance claims received from the residents of Bristol was in the last period for which figures are available; [273073]
(2) how many claims for jobseeker's allowance received from persons resident in Bristol West constituency are yet to be processed; [273074]
(3) what steps his Department is taking to reduce processing times for claims received for jobseeker's allowance in Bristol. [274157]
Mr. McNulty: 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 questions asking what the average processing time for Jobseeker's Allowance claims received from Bristol was in the last period for which figures are available; how many claims for Jobseeker's Allowance received from persons resident in Bristol West constituency are
yet to be processed; what steps the Department is taking to improve processing times for claims received for Jobseeker's Allowance in Bristol. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
In Jobcentre Plus we aim to process Jobseeker's Allowance claims within an average of 11.5 working days. Jobseeker's Allowance claims for customers in Bristol are processed at our Bristol Benefit Delivery Centre. The latest figures available for Jobseeker's Allowance claims are for the month of March 2009. These figures show that during March 2009 the Bristol Benefit Delivery Centre processed Jobseeker's Allowance claims on average within 8.9 working days of the claim being made.
Although figures are available for the number of Jobseeker's Allowance claims waiting to be processed, it is not possible to break this figure down into particular constituencies. On 27 April 2009 there were 1,387 new claims to Jobseeker's Allowance to be processed at Bristol Benefit Delivery Centre.
During the operational year 2008/09 we processed all Jobseeker's Allowance claims in Bristol within 10.1 days. This is significant as during the twelve month period from April 2008 to March 2009 our Bristol Benefit Delivery Centre saw the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance rise by 133.5 per cent from 8,550 to 19,960. Despite this increase in our workload we have continued to perform well in processing new claims.
We anticipate that additional resources are required to deal with the increasing number of new claims to Jobseeker's Allowance arising during the economic downturn. We have recently recruited 130 new staff in the West of England district across a range of Jobcentre Plus offices and duties. These people are currently at various stages of the recruitment process; some have been recruited and trained, whilst others are awaiting screening clearance. Another 105 new staff have been recruited on a fixed term basis and are currently awaiting allocation to posts and training.
National Insurance Contributions
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the change in the number of people who would accrue contributory years of national insurance contributions as a result of charging employee national insurance contributions on aggregate income from all employments; and if he will make a statement. [269039]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Evidence from the Labour Force Survey 2006-08 shows that there are around 40,000 people who have two jobs each paying below the lower earnings limit but when aggregated their earnings are at least equal to the lower earnings limit. Around half of these people are estimated to already be accruing entitlement to contributory benefits through other interactions with the system and represent less than 0.1 per cent. of all people accruing entitlement to state pension in those years.
These are point-in-time data and people are unlikely to remain in this position for lengthy periods and may well have other opportunities to build up qualifying years during their working lives. Reforms in the Pensions Act 2007, including the reduction in the number of qualifying years to 30 for a basic state pension, mean that from 2010 people reaching state pension age will have far greater opportunity to build up a full basic state pension entitlement.
The aggregation of the earnings of people doing more than one job would add an increased burden for employers to comply with.
Pensions
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent estimate he has made of (a) the number of people in the UK with stranded pensions and (b) the monetary value of such pensions; and if he will make a statement. [276724]
Ms Rosie Winterton: [holding answer 21 May 2009]: The information is not collected centrally and therefore the numbers requested are not available.
Government have introduced a number of changes to trivial commutation rules in recent years to help people avoid the problem of stranded pension pots. The 2004 Finance Act increased considerably the amount that could be trivially commuted from £2,500 in 2005-06 to £15,000 in 2006-07. This change benefits those with individual funds above the old limit. However, the limit applies to the aggregate value of all funds held by an individual (to ensure trivial commutation is not exploited for tax reasons) and so can still result in an individual with several pension funds facing one or more stranded pots.
Easements to the trivial commutation rules for occupational pensions come into force 1 December 2009. These amend rules so that small occupational pension pots of less than £2,000 can be commuted as a trivial lump sum irrespective of the total value of funds held by the individual. This will help to ease the problem of stranded pensions.
The problem of stranded pensions must be weighed against the need to make sure that pension savings, which attract favourable tax treatment, are ring-fenced to generate income in retirement.
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