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21 July 2009 : Column 1326W—continued
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many and what proportion of (a) new and (b) re-assessed council tax benefit claims were processed in (i) 10 days or less, (ii) 11 to 15 days, (iii) 16 to 20 days, (iv) 21 to 25 days, (v) 26 to 30 days, (vi) 31 to 35 days, (vii) 36 to 40 days, (viii) 41 to 45 days and (ix) over 45 days in each (A) region and (B) local authority in each of the last six quarters; [287317]
(2) how many and what proportion of (a) new and (b) re-assessed housing benefit claims were processed in (i) 10 days and fewer, (ii) 11 to 15 days, (iii) 16 to 20 days, (iv) 21 to 25 days, (v) 26 to 30 days, (vi) 31 to 35 days, (vii) 36 to 40 days, (viii) 41 to 45 days and (ix) over 45 days in each (A) region and (B) local authority in each of the last six quarters. [287318]
Helen Goodman: The information requested is currently not available.
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions under what circumstances benefit claimants become Gateway outstayers. [288489]
Jim Knight: Gateway overstayers are New Deal participants who have not started a mandatory New Deal Option or Intensive Activity Period (IAP) before the end of the maximum period they can remain on a Personal Adviser caseload, which is 16 weeks. This can happen for a number of reasons, including:
The participant has a firm offer of employment which is due to start shortly after the end of Gateway;
The provision of the option/activity the participant was due to take up unexpectedly becomes unavailable;
The participant is shortly due to emigrate to a country outside Great Britain;
The participant has suffered the bereavement of a close member of their family;
The participant is referred to an activity/option, but fails to start/attend.
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what mechanisms are in place to monitor the effect of changing the backdating period for (a) pension credit, (b) council tax benefit and (c) housing benefit in October 2008; and if she will make a statement. [288758]
Helen Goodman: All benefits are kept under review as part of our continual steps to make sure that everyone is getting all of the help that they are entitled to and we are always working to make our benefits more accessible.
The Pension, Disability and Carers Service continues to promote take-up of benefits by pressing forward with data matching to identify those who might be entitled to, but not receiving pension credit, to conduct around 13,000 home visits for vulnerable customers each week, targeted local marketing and media campaigns and ever closer working with partner organisations.
The claims process has been simplified and from November 2008 housing benefit and council tax benefit can be claimed over the phone alongside pension credit without the need to sign a claim form.
We are also taking powers in the current Welfare Reform Bill to explore whether the Department can make better use of the information it already holds to improve the take-up of pension credit.
As with pension credit, there are no specific plans to monitor the effect of the change in the time allowed for customers of pension credit age to claim housing benefit and council tax benefit.
For working age customers, the Government have said that they will review the effect of the changes to the housing benefit and council tax benefit backdating rules for this group at the end of 2009. To do this we will use information from the Single Housing Benefit Extract, the Department's principal source of data for housing benefit and council tax benefit administration. In addition, two further methods will be used to inform a review of the policy at the end of 2009. First, the last half-yearly Omnibus Survey of local authorities contained questions which specifically asked them about the impact of these changes. Second, a survey has been running on the DWP website since 2 March, inviting stakeholders such as welfare rights agencies, local authority associations and housing organisations to submit their assessment of the effect of the new rules. This survey, which was devised with the assistance of key stakeholders and ends on 31 July, also includes a case study section so that respondents can contribute detailed information about the impact on individual cases.
Social Security Benefits: Contracts
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what reports have been compiled as a result of inspection and validation of contract compliance of her Department's external contractors working on programmes with benefit recipients. [286697]
Jim Knight: DWP contract managers undertake regular contractor performance reviews to monitor contract compliance. These then inform the preparation of the contractor's Performance Development Plan which sets out any remedial action.
DWP officials also undertake independent monitoring visits to provide assurance that welfare to work contractors have appropriate financial controls and effective systems in place. A report of the findings is produced and forms the basis of an agreed action plan.
The Department works closely with Ofsted in England, and Estyn in Wales, to produce an annual programme of inspection, ensuring all welfare to work contracts delivered by external contractors are inspected over the course of an inspection cycle. Reports from external inspections are in the public domain.
Social Security Benefits: Disabled
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many people have received their health checks for invalidity benefits in each month since the introduction of the current health checks scheme; how many people were planned to receive such checks but have not; how long it is expected to take to provide checks to such people; and what the cost of doing so will be; [271988]
(2) how many people have come off each type of invalidity benefit in each month since the new system of health checks came into effect; and how many people remain on each benefit. [271989]
Jonathan Shaw: The employment and support allowance was introduced in October 2008 and has replaced incapacity benefits for new customers. Alongside the employment and support allowance we have introduced a new more robust medical assessment-the work capability assessment, which focuses on what people can do, as well as what they cannot. The number of face-to-face medical assessments for all incapacity benefits completed by Atos Healthcare during each month is as follows:
| Month | Assessments |
The number of medical assessments undertaken was, until recently, below the number of cases coming in for assessment, but action has been taken which will by the summer raise these to a level that will clear the accumulated backlog. No additional payments will be made to clear overdue work capability assessments. The prices paid for assessments remain confidential.
As at November 2008, there were 2,593,010 incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance claimants in Great Britain and, based on provisional figures, an additional 51,000 claimants of employment and support allowance.
Figures for the number of claimants moving off incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance are only available for November 2008, one month after the work capability assessment was introduced. Figures for the number of claimants moving off employment and support allowance are not yet available but are expected to be released later this summer.
Social Security Benefits: Disqualification
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment she has made of the effect of the Government's policies on welfare reform on families in Tamworth constituency. [282739]
Jim Knight: The welfare reform programme will allow us to bring about the most radical reform of the welfare state for generations. We remain committed to further reform to reduce welfare dependency and support more people into work, provide greater support and control for disabled people and strengthen parental responsibility.
Since 2001, the Government have significantly extended and improved civil rights for disabled people in areas such as employment, education, access to goods and services and transport. Disabled people in Tamworth will have benefited from these improvements in disability rights. Similarly, families with severely disabled three and four year old children who are unable, or virtually unable to walk will have benefited from the Government's decision to lower the minimum age entitlement to the higher rate mobility component of disability living allowance from April 2001, whilst older and less well-off carers have gained extra help through the provisions
within the national carers strategy. The Welfare Reform Bill currently before Parliament contains powers to increase choice and control for disabled adults, including disabled parents, enabling them to choose how certain state support is used to meet their individual needs.
There are over 10 million people with a limiting long-term illness, impairment or disability in Great Britain making up 18 per cent. of the population. (Family resources survey 2007-08). The prevalence of disability rises with age; around one in 20 children are disabled, compared to around one in seven working age adults and almost one in two people over state pension age. All of these people would meet the definition of disability in the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). The figures can be disaggregated to a regional level which shows that 23 per cent. of adults and 7 per cent. of children in the west midlands are disabled. (Family resources survey 2007-08).
Information on the numbers of customers in Tamworth who are in receipt of disability living allowance (DLA) and attendance allowance (AA) is in the following table.
| Tamworth | ||
| November each year | DLA recipients | AA recipients |
| Note: Caseload figures are rounded to the nearest 10; some additional disclosure control has also been applied. Totals show the number of people in receipt of an allowance, and exclude people with entitlement where the payment has been suspended, for example if they are in hospital. Source: DWP Information Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study | ||
Through Jobcentre Plus, we are promoting work as the best form of welfare for people of working age. Since 1997, although the number of people claiming as unemployed in Tamworth has increased by 58 per cent., the number of long-term unemployed has decreased by 62 per cent. Since 1997 to November 2009 the number of people claiming income support for lone parents in Tamworth has decreased by 28 per cent. to 990.
Our new deals have helped lone parents, the young unemployed, the long-term unemployed, disabled people, the over 50s and partners of unemployed people to move from benefit into work. Nationally almost 2.14 million people have been helped into work by the new deals, with over 3,000 in Tamworth alone.
Significant progress has also been made in tackling child poverty. Since 1998-99 the number of children in relative low-income households fell by 500,000 from 3.4 million to 2.9 million on a before housing costs (BHC) basis.
Social Security Benefits: Fraud
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints her Department has received from benefit claimants over lost payment due to fraudulent use of chip and PIN cards in the last 12 months; what estimate she has made of the total monetary value of benefits stolen in this way; and if she will make a statement. [278152]
Helen Goodman: No such complaints have been recorded by the Department in the last 12 months. We would expect customers who were concerned about chip and PIN fraud to contact their account provider rather than the Department.
Social Security Benefits: Mental Health
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of people in receipt of incapacity benefit or employment and support allowance had their capability for work assessed as limited by mental ill-health in each year since 1997. [282547]
Jonathan Shaw:
The number of people claiming incapacity benefit has fallen in recent years. The number of people claiming for physical conditions has fallen significantly as a result of Government programmes to get more people who are able to work back into suitable employment. The number of people claiming incapacity
benefit for mental health conditions has remained broadly unchanged over the last few years.
The Government are developing more action to help those with mental health conditions get back into work including a new Mental Health and Employment strategy due to be published in the autumn and the Perkins review on how we help people with mental health conditions back into work.
We have replaced the old system of incapacity benefits with the more work-focused employment and support allowance to engage with people more actively and to ensure they are aware of opportunities available.
The essential rule for entitlement to either incapacity benefit or employment and support allowance does not depend on an individual's diagnosis or condition, but on the effect that condition, or a combination of conditions, has on each individual's mental and physical function.
Information for employment and support allowance is not yet available. Information for incapacity benefit is provided in the following table.
| Proportion of IB claimants with mental and behavioural disorders as main disabling condition, November 1997 to 2008 | ||||
| As at November each year: | All conditions (Number) | Mental and behavioural disorders (Number) | Physical and other conditions (Number) | Percentage of incapacity benefit claimants with mental and behavioural disorders |
| Notes: 1. Causes of incapacity are based on the International Classification of Diseases, 10(th) Revision, published by the World Health Organisation. 2. To qualify for incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance, claimants must undertake a medical assessment of incapacity for work called the personal capability assessment. Therefore, the medical condition recorded on the claim form does not itself confer benefit entitlement. 3. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 4. Percentages are rounded to 1 decimal place. 5. Figures for 1997 and 1998 have been derived by applying 5 per cent. proportions to 100 per cent. WPLS totals. Source: DWP Information Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study 5 per cent. and 100 per cent. data. | ||||
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