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30 Mar 2010 : Column 951W—continued
There are a variety of activities that contribute to the cost of recruitment including the cost of training staff to undertake recruitment exercises; expenses such as travel and accommodation that may be incurred in attending interviews; the cost of hiring venues where required; publicity costs for recruitment campaigns; security and Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks; administration services provided by DWP Shared Service; the cost of Jobcentre Plus staff time spent on recruitment, for example sifting applications and the use of external recruitment providers where necessary. Additionally, we advertise all our vacancies through Jobcentre Plus as a matter of course.
These recruitment costs are not recorded separately within our financial systems so we cannot provide the amount spent on recruitment in Jobcentre Plus in 2008-09.
I hope this information is helpful.
Jobseeker's Allowance
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people aged (a) under 25, (b) 25 to 50 and (c) over 50 years old (i) claimed jobseeker's allowance and (ii) were helped into employment by Jobcentre Plus in each Jobcentre Plus district in each month from January 2008. [323819]
Jim Knight: The available information on jobseeker's allowance claimants has been placed in the Library.
The Office for National Statistics also publishes voluntarily provided information on the numbers of people leaving jobseeker's allowance for employment on the Nomis website. As the provision of those data is voluntary, it does not have sufficient coverage to give the complete picture.
Jobseeker's Allowance: East of England
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average duration of jobseeker's allowance claim was in each local authority area in the East of England in each of the last (a) 12 months and (b) 10 years. [325158]
Helen Goodman: The available information has been placed in the Library.
Means-tested Benefits
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many persons with a national insurance number who are (a) 21 or under and (b) over 21 years old claim all means-tested benefits. [319081]
Jim Knight: All claimants are required to have, or have applied for a national insurance number (NINO) when they claim benefits; however, possession of a NINO does not in and of itself confer any rights to benefits on its holder. The most recent available information is in the following tables.
| Employment and support allowance (income-based) claimants by age, Great Britain, August 2009 | |||
| All ages | Aged 21 years and under | Aged over 21 years | |
| Notes: 1. Case load figures are rounded to the nearest 10; some additional disclosure control has also been applied. 2. Totals may not sum due to rounding. 3. Employment and support allowance (ESA) replaced incapacity benefit and income support paid on the grounds of incapacity for new claims from 27 October 2008. 4. ESA, income-based benefit type: The benefit type is defined as pay status at the case load date-this may differ to the status at the start or end of the claim. 5. Income-based ESA includes a small number of claimants with both contributory-based and income-based entitlement. Source: DWP Information Directorate Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS). | |||
| Pension credit claimants, Great Britain, August 2009 | |
| Number | |
| Notes: 1. Case load figures are rounded to the nearest 10; some additional disclosure control has also been applied. 2. Pension credit was introduced on 6 October 2003 and replaced minimum income guarantee (income support for people aged 60 or over). The vast majority of people who were previously in receipt of the minimum income guarantee transferred to pension credit in October 2003. These pension credit statistics are produced on a different basis to the early estimates. The latter are more timely but operational processing times mean that a number of claim commencements and terminations are not reflected in them. 3. This data represents all claimants as this benefit is not paid to anyone aged under 60. Source: DWP Information Directorate Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS). | |
| Housing benefit and council tax benefit claimants by age, Great Britain, November 2009 | |||
| All ages | Aged 21 years and under | Aged over 21 years | |
| Notes: 1. The figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Totals may not sum due to rounding. 3. The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 4. Council tax benefit figures exclude any single adult rebate cases. 5. SHBE is a monthly electronic scan of claimant level data direct from local authority computer systems. It replaces quarterly aggregate clerical returns. The data is available monthly from November 2008 and November 2009 is the most recent available. 6. There will be overlaps in data between housing benefit (HB) and council tax benefit (CTB) and between HB/CTB and the other benefits shown in the preceding tables. Source: Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE). | |||
Mortgages: Government Assistance
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many households received assistance under the Support for Mortgage Interest Scheme in each of the last 24 months. [316828]
Helen Goodman [holding answer 10 February 2010]: Financial support for home owners who are having difficulty in meeting their mortgage payments is provided through the benefits system. Help is available towards the interest on mortgages (known as Support for Mortgage Interest) as part of income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance, income-related employment and support allowance and state pension credit.
The following table shows the number of households who have received assistance under the Support for Mortgage Interest Scheme each quarter since February 2008. The information requested is not available on a monthly basis.
| Income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance and state pension credit claimants who are receiving assistance under the Support for Mortgage Interest Scheme | |
| Total SMI population | |
| Notes: 1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred. 2. Figures have been uprated using 5 per cent. proportions against 100 per cent. Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study totals. 3. Employment and support allowance was introduced in October 2008. No estimate is available yet for the number of employment and support allowance (income-related) cases. 4. The best statistics on benefits are now derived from 100 per cent. data sources. However, the 5 per cent. sample data still provide some detail not yet available from the 100 per cent. data sources. In this case reliable data for mortgage interest support is not available from the 100 per cent. data so the 5 per cent. data has been used, the latest of which is August 2009. 5. Pension credit was introduced on 6 October 2003 and replaced minimum income guarantee (income support for people aged 60 or over). The vast majority of people who were previously in receipt of the minimum income guarantee transferred to pension credit in October 2003. Residual minimum income guarantee cases are included in the income support figures. 6. Pension credit is claimed on a household basis and therefore the number of people that pension credit helps is the number of claimants in addition to the number of partners for whom they are also claiming. Source: Department for Work and Pensions, Information Directorate, 5 per cent. Quarterly Statistical Enquiry Data, Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study. | |
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in the West Midlands have received assistance under the Support for Mortgage Interest Scheme since its inception. [325049]
Helen Goodman: Financial support for homeowners who are having difficulty in meeting their mortgage payments is provided through the benefits system. Help is available towards the interest on mortgages (known as Support for Mortgage Interest) as part of income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance, and income-related employment and support allowance and state pension credit.
Support for Mortgage Interest was available through supplementary benefit which was replaced by income support in 1988. A complete series of quality assured data is not available before August 1997.
The available information is in the table:
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