| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
30 Jun 2009 : Column 138W—continued
Jobseeker’s Allowance
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate her Department has made of the expected additional on-flows onto jobseeker's allowance owing to the (a) introduction of the employment and support allowance and (b) winding up of the income support scheme in each quarter in (i) 2009-10 and (ii) 2010-11. [277220]
Jim Knight [holding answer 1 June 2009]: Information about the estimated additional on-flows to jobseeker’s allowance as a result of employment and support allowance replacing incapacity benefit for new claims from October 2008 is in the following table.
| Estimated on-flows to jobseeker's allowance | |
| Number | |
| Note: Figures are rounded to the nearest 1,000. | |
There are currently no plans to move any groups off Income Support in the quarters referred to other than lone parents with older children.
Local Employment Partnerships
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in each age group have been placed in employment through the Local Employment Partnership scheme in the last six months. [278262]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 8 June 2009]: Figures for people moving into work through the Local Employment Partnership scheme by age group are not available.
Jobcentre Plus's administrative records show that more than 100,000 people were helped into work through Local Employment Partnerships in the six months from November 2008 to the end of April 2009.
New Deal for Young People: Suffolk
Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Suffolk registered for the New Deal for Young People in the last 12 months. [273249]
Jim Knight: In the 12 months up to and including November 2008 1,410 people entered the New Deal for Young People (NDYP) in Suffolk. This figure represents the number of individuals to have started NDYP for the most recent year available.
The figure is rounded to the nearest 10. It should be noted that some individuals may have started the New Deal more than once.
Poverty: Merseyside
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) Merseyside and (b) Crosby constituency were in relative poverty in each of the last five years. [282475]
Jim Knight: Poverty statistics, published in the Households Below Average Income series, only allow a breakdown of the overall number of people in relative poverty at Government office region level or for inner or outer London. Therefore, information for Merseyside and the Crosby constituency is not available.
Social Security Benefits
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many benefit offices were in operation in each year since 1998; and how many offices scheduled for closure in each such year had the closure suspended. [280916]
Jim Knight [holding answer 18 June 2009]: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is the responsibility of the acting chief executive, Mel Groves. I have asked him to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.
The Secretary of State has asked Mel Groves to reply to your question asking how many benefit offices have been open in each year since 1998; and how many offices scheduled for closure in each such year had the closure suspended. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to Mel Groves as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus. As Mel Groves is currently on annual leave, I am replying in his absence.
Information is only available on Jobcentre Plus offices since April 2002, when Jobcentre Plus was created by the merger of the former Employment Service and Benefits Agency. I have attached a table at Annex 1 of the available information.
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, industry standard, contact centres and 79 main benefit processing centres.
Jobcentres continue to provide an essential service—especially to those customers most in need of tailored help. However, 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.
Wherever we have considered the closure of a public facing office we have undertaken a full consultation with local stakeholders, including MPs. When finalising our Service
Delivery Plans, our District Managers take account of this consultation and may, in the light of that consultation, decide not to pursue closure. We do not retain records of offices that remain open following a consultation exercise, but, in the light of the current economic conditions and welfare reform changes planned for the next two to three years a decision was taken in November 2008 to suspend the closure of 25 Jobcentres which were being considered for closure. Three small offices in London, where closure had been previously announced, subsequently closed this year. There will be no new Jobcentre closures while the current economic conditions exist.
Annex 1
| Jobcentre Plus offices open to the public now all modernised: 2002 to date( 1) | |||||||||
| January | |||||||||
| Region | Currently | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
| (1) Prior to implementing our network of Benefit Delivery Centres, from April 2006, many sites delivered both customer facing and benefit processing services. This table reflects the rationalisation of the former network of Employment Service and Benefit Agency offices right through to the current network where all offices are integrated Job Centre offices. | |||||||||
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Environment Agency: Manpower
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many (a) directors, (b) senior managers, (c) specialist and delivery managers and (d) executive support and administration staff there were in each Environment Agency office in each of the last five years. [281627]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The following table shows the information requested broken down by each Environment Agency region. It also includes figures for its head office. The information has been provided in this way because the Environment Agency has over 250 offices.
| Analysis | ||||||
| Based on organisation region | Grouping | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |