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20 July 2009 : Column 852W—continued
Pension Service: Internet
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many upgrades have been made to the Pension Service's state pension forecast e-service system since September 2008; when each upgrade was made; for how long the online form was unavailable as a result of each upgrade; and if she will make a statement. [287547]
Angela Eagle: Since September 2008 there have been three upgrades of the online state pension forecasting service.
To implement these upgrades, the online service was unavailable as follows:
From 00.00 on 24 October 2008 to 07:00 on 27 October 2008
From 17:00 on 23 January 2009 to 07:00 on 26 January 2009
From 19:00 on 3 April 2009 to 01:00 on 4 April 2009
Times are given using the 24 hour clock.
Pensioners: Council Tax
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if she will make an assessment of the effect on the disposable income and quality of life of pensioners in receipt of pension credit of changes in council tax levels over the last 10 years. [275481]
Angela Eagle: Pension credit was introduced in October 2003. Between then and 2007-08 (the latest data available) average council tax liability for pension credit recipients has remained the same at around 7 per cent. of net income.
Notes:
1. Receipt of the guarantee credit element of pension credits brings entitlement to full help with a council tax bill through council tax benefit.
2. Based on the family resources survey and as such subject to a degree of sampling and non-sampling error.
Pensioners: Poverty
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if she will estimate the number of pensioners that would be lifted out of poverty if take-up of means-tested benefits was 100 per cent.; and if she will make a statement. [287325]
Angela Eagle: Our latest estimates show that if there were 100 per cent. take-up of all income related benefits by pensioners entitled to them the number of pensioners below 60 per cent. of contemporary median income, after housing costs, would fall by around 700,000, after housing costs have been taken into account, based on 2008-09 benefit rates.
Pensioners: Social Security Benefits
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average monetary value of benefits in kind provided by her Department was to (a) single pensioners and (b) pensioner couples in York in respect of (i) NHS services, (ii) social services, (iii) travel concessions, (iv) television licences, (v) insulation and home repairs and improvements grants and (vi) other services in each year since 1996-97. [286008]
Angela Eagle: A wide range of services and benefits in kind are available to older people and these are administered both centrally and locally. As a result, the information is not available in the format requested: some information is not collected and some could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The information which is available is given as follows.
People aged 60 and over are able to claim free prescriptions and eye tests on the grounds of age. Detailed information on prescription charges is not held in the format requested.
Free NHS sight tests were made available to people aged 60 and over from 1 April 1999. Information on the average value of NHS sight tests provided to people aged 60 and over within the area of the former York and Selby primary care trust is only available on a consistent basis for the three years 2003-04 to 2005-06 and is set out in the following table.
| Financial year | Number of free NHS sight tests given to people aged 60 and over | Estimated cost of NHS sight tests to people aged 60 and over (£) |
PCTs were restructured in October 2006 and no equivalent data for 2006-07 are available. Information for 2007-08 is available for the North Yorkshire and York PCT area and is set out in the following table.
| Financial year | Number of free NHS sight tests given to people aged 60 and over | Estimated cost of NHS sight tests to people aged 60 and over (£) |
NHS optical vouchers and free dental treatment may additionally be available to individuals in receipt of certain qualifying benefits, or if they have been assessed as eligible for assistance under the NHS Low Income Scheme. Information on the value of such NHS services is not available centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
The following table shows the gross current expenditure by York council on social services for people aged 65 or over from 1996-97 to 2007-08.
| Gross current expenditure( 1) by York council on older people (aged 65 or over) | |
| 1 April to 31 March | Gross current expenditure (£000) |
| (1) Gross expenditure includes income from client contributions, but excludes capital charges and certain income items which count as expenditure elsewhere in the public sector, such as contributions from primary care trusts. This is to avoid double counting within the aggregate public sector accounts of the money involved. (2) From 2002-03 onwards, the data includes clients who transferred to council with social services responsibilities (CSSR) support on 8 April 2002, who were formally in receipt of higher rates of income support under the Department for Work and Pensions preserved rights scheme. (3) From 2003-04, additional funding was made available to CSSRs via the Supporting People grant. Source: R03 and PSS EX1 returns | |
The statutory minimum travel concession, introduced in April 2008, gives those aged 60 or over and eligible disabled people free off-peak local bus travel in any part of England. The Government provide around £1 billion a year to fund the concession.
Travel concession schemes are provided through local authorities, which have flexibility to enhance their schemes to offer more than the statutory minimum, so there are local variations in what is offered and take-up of concessionary travel also varies from one area to another. Therefore it is not possible to quantify the value of the benefit in kind in a specific local authority area.
Free television licences for people aged 75 or over were introduced in November 2000. TV Licensing, who administer free licences as agents for the BBC, are not able to provide geographical breakdowns of licences issued. However, figures, shown in the following table, are available for the number of households with at least one person aged 75 or over claiming winter fuel payments in York local authority. These people would be eligible for a free television licence.
| York local authority area | |
| Number of households with someone aged 75 or over | |
Television licence fees for each year since the concession was introduced are shown in the following table:
| TV licence fees | ||
| £ | ||
| Colour | Black and white | |
The Warm Front scheme is the Government's main programme for tackling fuel poverty in vulnerable households in the private sector in England. Warm Front provides grants for heating, insulation and energy efficiency measures. The following table displays the number of pensioner households that have received Warm Front assistance in the York local authority area since the scheme's inception in 2000, and the average spend on each of those households.
| Number of single pensioner households assisted in York | Average spend per single pensioner household assisted (£) | Number of two pensioners households assisted in York | Average spend per two pensioner household assisted (£) | |
Pensions
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the rates of basic state pension payable to (a) single pensioners and (b) couples were in (i) 1996-97 and (ii) the latest date for which figures are available; and what the rates would have been if they had been uprated in line with earnings. [285753]
Angela Eagle: The information requested is in the following table:
| Financial year | Level of the basic state pension (£ per week) | |
| Standard rate on own contributions | Standard rate for couple where wife is reliant on husband's insurance | |
| Notes: 1. All figures in cash terms. 2. Uprating calculations employ historic annual increase in the RPI series for September of the previous year. 3. There is no such thing as an actual 'singles rate' though the standard rate of the Category A pension is commonly referred to as the 'singles rate'. Similarly the sum of the Category A and Category B(L) pension is often referred to as the 'couples rate'. 4. Category B(L) pension is about 60 per cent. of the standard rate basic Category A pension. It is payable by virtue of a spouse's qualifying years or earnings. | ||
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