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12 Oct 2009 : Column 57W—continued
| Table 2: Total below SCS | ||
| Financial year | Total number of recipients | Total paid (£ million) |
| Table 3: Total SCS | ||
| Financial year | Total number of recipients | Total paid (£ million) |
Individuals may also be entitled to a Special Award either as cash or retail vouchers. These are one-off recognition awards, payable at any time during the performance year and are not linked to the annual pay
award. Payments are made to recognise exceptional achievements beyond what would normally be expected.
Information on Special Awards prior to 2007-08 is not available.
Some individuals may have received more than one voucher during the year.
| Table 4: Cash payments | ||
| Financial year | Total number of recipients | Total paid (£ million) |
| Table 5: Voucher payments | ||
| Financial year | Total number of vouchers issued | Total paid (£ million) |
Loyalty and Recognition Award Scheme
The Department also has a Loyalty and Recognition scheme that allows staff who have completed 25 years service the choice of receiving an award of either a gift up to the value of £250 or an additional 37 hours (36 in London Pay Zones) special leave with pay regardless of the hours they work.
The following table shows the total number of staff awarded the Loyalty and Recognition Award in each year since April 2007. This has been broken down to show the number of staff who received the additional special leave and the days taken, the number who received the financial gift and the total cost of financial gift payments.
It is not possible to provide the monetary value of the additional special leave taken because information is not recorded in this format.
Information about the Loyalty and Recognition Scheme was not recorded centrally prior to April 2007. The cost of extracting this information in the format requested for the period prior to April 2007 would be at a disproportionate cost.
| Table 6: Loyalty and recognition awards | |||||
| Financial year | Total number of staff awarded the 25 year loyalty and recognition award | Total number of staff who opted to receive the additional special leave | Total number in days of additional special leave taken | Total number of staff who opted to receive the financial gift | Total cost of financial gift payments (£) |
| Notes: 1. The information in tables 1 and 2 is based on the numbers of employees recorded on the DWP payroll systems as having received a qualifying performance mark. These are headcount. 2. Some individuals may have received more than one type of bonus payment in the year, which is why the information has been presented separately and not as an aggregated total. 3. The performance bonus is paid in the financial year following the performance year of 1 April to 31 March 2009. 4. The total amount paid includes Employers National Insurance Contribution (ERNIC). 5. In-year cash bonus data were previously held on a separate IT system. Data from this system can only be obtained from a third party and there would be a cost ascribed to this provision. This would bring the cost of answering this PQ to above the threshold considered proportionate. | |||||
These figures are the best available.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which Minister in her Department has been assigned responsibility for overseeing the delivery of value for money in her Department; whether her Department has established a public sector reform team to implement service reforms; and if she will make a statement. [289731]
Jim Knight: I have responsibility for overseeing the delivery of value for money within the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
DWP established a departmental wide change programme in 2007 in order to transform the way services are delivered, so that we transform the quality of customer service and drive up the efficiency of our delivery. Transforming DWP means putting the customer at the heart of everything we do.
DWP is committed to being an exemplar of effective service delivery and we are the first Government Department to have a Department Strategic Objective (DS07) to this effect. To support this we are developing and delivering new integrated services so that DWP customers will have their needs met through a single contact with us most of the time. We are also offering customers greater choice on how they access services and have an ambition to have most of our services available online for those that prefer to use this channel.
Departmental Recycling
Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of her Department's waste was recycled in the latest period for which figures are available. [289618]
Jim Knight: Included within the targets for Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate is a requirement for Departments to achieve recycling rates of 40 per cent. by 2010 and 75 per cent. by 2020. The Department already surpasses the initial target and is well on track to achieve the longer term objective.
The following table shows the total measurable waste produced by the Department and the amount recycled for the year ended 31 March 2009 compared with the year ended 31 March 2008.
| Total measurable waste | ||
| Year ended 31 March 2008 | Year ended 31 March 2009 | |
Elderly: Charities
John Mason: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what support her Department has given to charities which help the elderly in each of the last six years. [289709]
Angela Eagle: My Department works closely with a wide range of organisations both large and small, to ensure the voice of older people is heard. Funding from Government is not necessarily provided direct to charitable organisations, however, they can receive support through a range of processes.
For example, our LinkAge Plus pilots provided funding (£10 million) and engaged with local government, voluntary and community sectors including charities to ensure better information and access to services, putting older people at the forefront of service design and delivery.
More recently, my Department, along with DCSF, DH and the Office for the Third Sector is financing a £5.5 million programme to fund 12 sites encouraging
intergenerational volunteering. These sites will be run by local authorities in partnership with the third sector including charities.
The Department funds partnerships between, for example, local authorities and voluntary groups. It is not possible to easily identify the proportion which goes to charities.
Housing Benefit
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have (a) applied for and (b) received housing benefit in (i) North West Cambridgeshire, (ii) Cambridgeshire, (iii) Peterborough, (iv) Huntingdonshire and (v) England in each of the last five years. [291480]
Helen Goodman: The information is not available in the format requested; the available information is in the following tables.
| Housing benefit recipients May 2005 to May 2007 | |||
| May 2005 | May 2006 | May 2007 | |
| Notes: 1. The data refer to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 2. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 3. Figures for any non-responding authorities have been estimated. 4. Housing benefit figures exclude any extended payment cases. 5. Figures for Cambridgeshire include Huntingdonshire district council; Cambridge city council; South Cambridgeshire district council; East Cambridgeshire district council; and Fenland district council. Source: Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System Quarterly 100 per cent caseload stock-count taken in May 2005 to May 2007. | |||
| Housing benefit recipients November 2008 to May 2009 | ||
| November 2008 | May 2009 | |
| Notes: 1. The data refer to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 2. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 3. Figures for any non-responding authorities have been estimated. 4. Housing benefit figures exclude any extended payment cases. 5. The earliest available data for the Single Housing Benefit Extract are for November 2008. 6. Figures for Cambridgeshire include Huntingdonshire district council; Cambridge city council; South Cambridgeshire district council; East Cambridgeshire district council; and Fenland district council. Source: Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE) for November 2008 and May 2009. | ||
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate she has made of the cost to registered social landlords of the introduction of direct payment of local housing allowance in (a) 2009-10 and (b) each of the next five years. [291580]
Helen Goodman: Local housing allowance rules are not applied to registered social landlord cases. Therefore, direct payments will have no impact on this group.
Housing Benefit: Birmingham
Mr. Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people resident in Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath constituency were in receipt of housing benefit in each on the latest date for which figures are available. [291555]
Helen Goodman: Housing benefit information is not available at constituency level.
Housing Benefit: Reform
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when she plans to ( a) commence and (b) conclude her review of the outcomes of the reforms of the housing benefit system. [291577]
Helen Goodman: As was set out earlier this year in 'Building Britain's Future', we intend to consult on the reform of housing benefit later on this year. No decision has yet been made about the exact timing of the consultation exercise.
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