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2 Jun 2009 : Column 384W—continued
Departmental Dismissal
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many members of staff in his Department and its agencies were dismissed (a) for under-performance and (b) in total in each of the last 10 years. [274313]
Jonathan Shaw: The number of staff dismissed (a) for under-performance and (b) in total in each of the last 10 years is not available in the format requested.
The Department and its agencies do not have a category of under-performance as a measure of employee performance. However, there is a category of unsatisfactory performance.
The information is held on the Department’s personnel computer system which was introduced from November 2006. Information is not available from this system prior to April 2007.
The number of staff dismissed for unsatisfactory performance and the number dismissed in total, for each year since April 2007 is outlined in the following table:
| 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008 | |||
| Dismissals for unsatisfactory performance | Dismissals for reasons other than unsatisfactory performance | Total dismissals | |
| 1 April 2008 to 31 March 200 9 | |||
| DWP and its agencies | Dismissals for unsatisfactory performance | Dismissals for reasons other than unsatisfactory performance | Total dismissals |
The total number of staff dismissed in each year was in the region of 1 per cent. of the total staff employed in the Department. Of the total number of staff dismissed for reasons other than unsatisfactory performance around two-thirds were dismissed for unsatisfactory attendance.
Employment Schemes: Lone Parents
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when the Government's guarantee of a job interview for every lone parent who is looking for work and ready for work is expected to take effect. [275892]
Kitty Ussher [holding answer 15 May 2009]: Jobcentre Plus introduced the guarantee of a job interview for eligible lone parents in April 2008.
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when work trials for lone parents were introduced; and how many lone parents have undertaken such trials to date. [275893]
Kitty Ussher [holding answer 15 May 2009]: Work trials were introduced in December 1989. Lone parents do not have to satisfy the eligibility criteria and so have access to this provision from ‘Day One’. However, the nature of the available statistical data means I am unable to provide an overall figure of how many lone parents have undertaken a work trial.
Funeral Payments
Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will bring forward proposals to pay funeral grants to terminally ill people before they die to enable them to plan their own funerals; and if he will make a statement. [270107]
Kitty Ussher: The Department does not provide financial support to people to fund their own funerals. Funeral payments, an element of the social fund, provide help, at the point assistance is required, to people receiving specified income-related benefits or tax credits who are responsible for paying for the funeral of a close friend or relative and who have good reason for taking responsibility for the funeral arrangements. This is to ensure that available resources go to those who are least well off.
Although the scheme is kept under review there are no plans to make fundamental changes to the funeral payments scheme to provide advance financial assistance to people for arranging their own funeral.
Jobcentre Plus
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many jobcentres were (a) opened, (b) relocated and (c) closed in each of the last 12 months; under what circumstances jobcentres are (i) opened, (ii) relocated and (iii) closed; and if he will make a statement; [268439]
(2) what the (a) address is and (b) date of opening was of each jobcentre in England and Wales. [268440]
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 how many jobcentres were opened, relocated and closed in each of the last 12 months; under what circumstances jobcentres are opened, relocated and closed; and, what the address and date of opening was of each jobcentre in England and Wales. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
The information requested has been placed in the Library.
Jobcentre Plus Customer Service Directors regularly review their service delivery plans to ensure optimum provision of service for all customers, for every Jobcentre Plus District. Our approach to closure of a customer-facing Jobcentre takes into account any impact on customer service and the relocation of the work and staff of the closing office. When considering site closures we are committed to full consultation with our customers, partner organisations, Trade Unions, staff, and local Members of Parliament.
In light of the emerging economic downturn pressures we decided to suspend the planned closure of 25 Jobcentres. This decision was announced in November 2008. There has been a further closure of three small sites in London during March 2009. These had been announced last summer prior to the decision to suspend future closures. There will be no new Jobcentre closures while the current economic conditions persist.
Jobcentre Plus inherited around 1,500 offices from the merger of the Benefits Agency and the Employment Service in 2002. We have modernised our Jobcentre network to improve customer service, rationalising our estate to provide excellent high street coverage and a single, integrated customer facing office, at the same time reducing cost to the tax payer. We remain the largest office network in Government with 741 modern Jobcentres. This high street presence is supported by 31 modern contact centres and 79 main benefit processing centres.
In addition to our network of modernised Jobcentres we aim to make our services accessible to customers by providing a range of support through outreach, often delivering advisory and other support at our partners’ premises. That is particularly important in locations where maintaining a Jobcentre could not be justified. Typically such services can be delivered in partnership with Children’s Centres or on Local Authority premises or in conjunction with one of our Welfare to Work Providers.
The great majority of our services (in common with most large, modern organisations) are now also delivered through the telephone and internet. For example, to give customers more convenient access, we have around half a million vacancies on-line at any time (our website receives close to one million job searches every working day), and new claims to benefit are predominantly taken by telephone with some taken on-line. This has brought our customer facing services together in a more coherent and integrated network and I believe Jobcentre Plus is well-placed to respond to the full range of economic conditions.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking what roles we expect the planned additional 6,000 Jobcentre Plus staff to fill. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Whilst Jobcentre Plus will have an additional 6,000 staff in the next operational year we do not yet have the detailed plans on their deployment as these are still being worked on. However, it is anticipated that more than half of these will be Personal Advisers and others will be in customer intervention and support roles within our customer service operations.
Jobseeker’s Allowance
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of claims for jobseeker's 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. [266126]
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 right hon. Member with the information requested.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has asked me to reply to your question asking how many and what proportion of
claims for Jobseeker's 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.
In terms of volumes and percentages our benefit processing system records the number of Jobseekers Allowance claims processed within the following time bands: 1-5 days; 6-10 days; 11-16 days; 17-21 days and over 22 days. The volumes are displayed as a cumulative figure for each of the time bands except over 22 days. So for example, those claims between 1-5 days are included in the column for 6-10 days and so on. The percentage figures are not cumulative and are subject to rounding. This data has been available since 2006. Therefore 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. The available information is in the attached annex.
| Annex | ||||||||||
| Volume | Percentage | |||||||||
| C olumn A | C olumn B (=column A+cases 6-10 days) | C olumn C (=column B+cases 14-16 days) | C olumn D (=column C+cases 17-21 days) | C olumn E (=22 days and over only) | Column F | Column G | Column H | Column I | Column J | |
| JSA processed in 5 days | JSA processed in 10 days | JSA processed in 16 days | JSA processed in 21 days | JSA processed in 22+ days | 1-5 days | 6-10 days | 11-16 days | 17-24 days | 22 days+ | |
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