Employment: Females
Susan Elan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of recent trends in female employment in (a) Clwyd South constituency, (b) Wales and (c) the UK. [154118]
Mr Hurd: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Cabinet Office.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Glen Watson, dated May 2013:
As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for the recent trends in female employment in (a) Clwyd South constituency, (b) Wales and (c) the UK. (154118)
The ONS compiles Labour Market Statistics for areas below the UK following International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions using the Annual Population Survey (APS).
Table 1 shows the number of women aged 16 and over in the requested geographies who were in employment in the week prior to interview for the 12 month period January 2012 to December 2012, the latest available period, and for the 12 month period January 2011 to December 2011 from the APS along with the change in the number between the two periods.
Table 2 shows the employment rate in the requested geographies for women aged 16 to 64 in the week prior to interview for the 12 month period January 2012 to December 2012, the latest available period, and for the 12 month period January 2011 to December 2011 from the APS along with the change in the number between the two periods.
As with any sample survey, estimates from the APS are subject to a margin of uncertainty. A guide to the quality of the estimates is given in table 1.
A wide range of other labour market data for parliamentary constituencies and local authorities are also published on the Office for National Statistics' Nomis website:
www.nomisweb.co.uk
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| Table 1: Employment level for women aged 16 and over | |||
| Thousand | |||
| 12 months ending | |||
| December 2011 | December 2012(1) | Change between 12 month periods ending December 2011 and December 2012 | |
| (1) Coefficients of Variation have been calculated for the latest period as an indication of the quality of the estimates. See Guide to Quality below. Guide to Quality: The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of an estimate, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV—for example, for an estimate of 200 with a CV of 5% we would expect the population total to be within the range 180-220. Key: * 0 = CV<5%—Statistical Robustness: Estimates are considered precise ** 5 = CV <10%—Statistical Robustness: Estimates are considered reasonably precise *** 10 = CV <20%—Statistical Robustness: Estimates are considered acceptable **** CV ? 20%—Statistical Robustness: Estimates are considered too unreliable for practical purposes CV = Coefficient of Variation Source: Annual Population Survey | |||
| Table 2: Employment rate for women aged 16 to 64 | |||
| Percentage | |||
| 12 months ending | |||
| December 2011 | December 2012 | Change between 12 month periods ending December 2011 and December 2012 | |
| Source: Annual Population Survey | |||
Food Banks
Mrs Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether his Department issues guidance to local authorities on engaging with food bank providers and donors to ensure adequate and balanced coverage in their area. [154206]
Mr Hoban: Food banks are not part of the welfare system and as such DWP does not offer advice or guidance to local authorities on engaging with them.
Housing Benefit
Caroline Lucas:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to paragraph 26 of the equality impact assessment of the income-related benefits change to the non-dependant deduction rates published in February 2011, if he will commission research to update the conclusions of that paragraph; if he will (a) make and (b) place in the Library an assessment of the (i) potential increase in the number of non-dependants between the ages of 16 and 24 leaving the parental home and claiming housing benefit in their own right following the reduction of their parents'
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housing benefit through increases in non-dependant deductions and (ii) cost to the public purse of any such increase in (A) Brighton and Hove local authority area and (B) total; and if he will make a statement. [154110]
Steve Webb: It is a long-established principle that someone living in a housing benefit claimant's home should be asked to contribute towards the rent. The Government have now restored that contribution to the level it would have reached had it not been frozen in 2001.
The Department has no current plans to update the research to which this question refers. Further, no assessment is available on the potential impacts of non-dependant deductions in housing benefit in respect of (i) or (ii).
Incapacity Benefit: Bassetlaw
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in receipt of incapacity benefit in Bassetlaw constituency have elected not to be reassessed for any successor benefit; and if he will make a statement. [154169]
Mr Hoban: The information requested is not available. However, the Department regularly publishes official statistics on the outcomes of employment and support allowance (ESA) work capability assessments for new claims made to ESA and for incapacity benefits claimants being reassessed for ESA. The latest publication was released in April 2013 and includes a breakdown of incapacity benefits reassessment outcomes by local authority. It can be found on the internet at the following link.
Employment and support allowance: Outcomes of work capability assessments, Great Britain:
http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/workingage/index.php?page=esa_wca
Jobcentre Plus
Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to the answer of 22 April 2013, Official Report, columns 702-3W, on Jobcentre Plus, which of his ministerial colleagues visited each of the Jobcentre Plus centres listed in the last 12 months. [154880]
Mr Hoban: The answer to the hon. Gentleman’s question is in the following table:
| Minister | Jobcentre Plus Office |
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Jobseeker's Allowance: Internet
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of new claims for jobseeker's allowance were made online (a) in total and (b) by claimants living in Bassetlaw constituency in each of the last 12 months. [154164]
Mr Hoban: The following table shows the total percentage of new claims made for jobseeker’s allowance online nationally.
Data for claimants living in the Bassetlaw constituency are not available in the format requested.
| National (MISP measure) (percentage) | |
Personal Independence Payment: Cystic Fibrosis
Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a record of the main disabling condition for claimants of the personal independence payment; and if he will include cystic fibrosis as a category of main disabling condition in any such record. [154414]
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Esther McVey: The personal independence payment computer system will record the primary disabling condition, using a code based on the International Classification of Diseases which includes cystic fibrosis, together with any number of additional disabling conditions.
Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012
Hazel Blears: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department is taking to implement the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 in its procurement procedures; and what guidance he has given to his Department's executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies on implementation of that Act. [154543]
Mr Hoban: DWP policy has been developed and implemented which incorporates the principles of the new Act. This includes embedding sustainability by supporting the SME and diversity and equality agendas which are at the heart of the Social Value Act, at the initial and very high-level stages of a proposal, which require ministerial and key stakeholder support. A policy evaluation tool supports this and provides evidence as required.
Further embedding sustainability at project stage is achieved by undertaking deeper analysis, as more detail becomes available, via a sustainability evaluation tool which includes greenhouse gas analysis.
Additional steps, where relevant and appropriate, include contractual specifications and contract performance conditions that suppliers to the Department are required to meet. These relate to environmental issues, diversity and equality issues and use of apprenticeships in supply chains and are included in specific contract clauses and schedules that are subject to on going review with suppliers.
All DWP non-departmental public bodies have been made aware of and are expected to follow this policy.
Publications
Ann McKechin: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department spent on subscriptions to academic journals published by (a) Reed-Elsevier, (b) Wiley-Blackwell, (c) Springer and (d) any other academic publisher in each of the last five years. [154505]
Mr Hoban: The Department does not purchase academic journals from publishers directly. Instead a subscription agent and content aggregators are used to achieve economies of scale. Content aggregators provide full text database access to a large number of journals, thus achieving efficiency savings and rendering significant amounts of individual subscriptions unnecessary. Due to the aggregation process and the use of a single agent it is not possible to differentiate the cost by publisher.
Social Security Benefits: Telephone Services
Robert Halfon:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the principal access numbers are for those calling the benefits helpline number; which
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such lines
(a)
are free to the caller and
(b)
may incur a charge to the caller; and if he will take steps to ensure that all calls made to these helplines are recorded. [154298]
Mr Hoban:
Please find following a table of principal access numbers for all benefit service lines operated by
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the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The telephone numbers shown are the Department’s service lines for new claims to benefit and inquiries for working age and pensions benefits.
All calls made to the Department’s 0800 and 0845 service lines are recorded as a matter of policy.
| Table2 | |
| Primary Benefit Inquiry 0845 numbers | |
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| Textphone Services | |||
| Business | Service Line | Number | Cost Incurred/Free (if calling from a BT landline) |
State Retirement Pensions
Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will review the amount which an estate of an individual who has earned extra state pension can claim at the time of their death. [154410]
Steve Webb: At the moment, the estate of a single person may make a claim on behalf of the deceased for up to three months of the state pension that was unclaimed at the time of the death. We have no plans to amend these rules.
Our proposals for state pension reform are set out in the draft Pensions Bill announced in the Queen's Speech and published on 10 May 2013.
Katy Clark:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will change inheritance rules so that an individual can transfer any extra state pension
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entitlement they have earned to a family member of pension age who is not a spouse or civil partner at the time of their death. [154450]
Steve Webb: We have no plans to change the rules on inheritance for the current state pension scheme, and our proposals for changes in the future are set out in the Pension Bill published on 10 May 2013. After the implementation of the single-tier pension entitlement to a state pension will be based on an individual's contribution record only and the facility to inherit or derive any part of entitlement to state pension based on the national insurance contributions of another individual will end, with some transitional arrangements. Under these arrangements it will not be possible to transfer any extra state pension entitlement that may have been built up by the deceased from the deferral of their single tier pension. The detailed mechanics of the process are laid out in a policy paper entitled state pension entitlements derived from a current or former spouse’s or civil partner’s national insurance contributions, published on GOV.uk.
Universal Credit
Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of families who will receive universal credit and have one or more members in work but will not have a member eligible to pay income tax in 2015-16. [154215]
Mr Hoban: The universal credit caseload in 2015/16 is subject to the detailed approach to migration. The exact timing and sequence of the migration process will be adjusted in the light of experience, not least from operating the pathfinder service in the Greater Manchester area from April 2013.
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the housing cost contribution under universal credit on (a) levels of homelessness and (b) the number of people aged from 21 to 25 years making a separate claim for universal credit to cover housing costs. [154372]
Steve Webb: The Government think that it is reasonable that someone living in a claimant's home should be asked to contribute towards the rent. The contribution under universal credit is set at around £16 per week. This contribution will be expected only where the person is either in work or there is an expectation that they should be working. It will not be expected if the person is a carer, responsible for a young child or in receipt of a specified disability benefit.
No assessment is available on the potential impacts of the housing cost contribution in universal credit in respect of (a) or (b).
Jim Sheridan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the potential number of future universal credit claimants in (a) Paisley and Renfrewshire North constituency, (b) Scotland and (c) the UK. [154766]
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Mr Hoban: The information requested is not available for (a) Paisley and Renfrewshire North constituency as sample sizes are too small to yield reliable results for this geographical area.
Once universal credit (UC) is fully implemented we expect around 700,000 households to receive UC in (b) Scotland and around 8 million households in Great Britain.
The impact of universal credit in Northern Ireland is a matter for Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland.
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many people he expects to be in receipt of universal credit by April 2014; [154956]
(2) what assessment he has made of the earliest date on which one million people will be in receipt of universal credit. [154957]
Mr Hoban: I refer the right hon. Gentleman to the reply I provided him with on 13 May 2013, Official Report, column 69w on how many people have claimed universal credit in the pathfinder to date; and what estimate he has made of the total number of new claims for universal credit that will be processed by all the pathfinders.
We expect around 7,000 claims to universal credit in the pathfinders. Plans continue to be developed to support the gradual roll-out from autumn 2013 within Budget.
Mr Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what milestones for the delivery of IT support for universal credit he expects not to be met. [155188]
Mr Hoban: I refer the right hon. Gentleman to the reply I provided him with on 13 May 2013, Official Report, column 69-70w to his question on universal credit, and whether our expected timescale for the completion of the IT development for universal credit of spring 2013 for live pathfinders and autumn 2013 is on track.
The first milestone, to support the start of the Pathfinder on April 29, has been met. Plans continue to be developed to support the gradual roll-out from autumn 2013 within budget.
Universal Credit: Nottinghamshire
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many single parent families in (a) Bassetlaw constituency and (b) Nottinghamshire will be in receipt of universal credit by the time that scheme is fully implemented; and how many such families will have a (i) higher and (ii) lower entitlement under universal credit than the present system. [154145]
Mr Hoban: The information requested is not available as sample sizes are too small to yield reliable results for these geographical areas.
The impacts of universal credit are presented in the universal credit impact assessment available at.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/174996/universal-credit-wr2011-ia.pdf.pdf
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Vacancies: Advertising
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of jobs advertised on the Universal Jobmatch website in (a) Bassetlaw constituency and (b) the UK were for self-employment since the introduction of that website. [154163]
Mr Hoban: The proportion of self-employed new job vacancies posted on Universal Jobmatch from the introduction of the website up to 30 April 2013 in Bassetlaw constituency is 25.2%. For the same period in the UK the proportion is 14.4%.
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Work Programme: Bassetlaw
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been paid to Work programme providers as a result of residents in Bassetlaw constituency being placed in employment which generated a job outcome to date. [154144]
Mr Hoban: The total paid to Work programme providers in the UK is £377.9 million from the start of the programme through to 30 July 2012, ie the period covered by the Statistical Release. Due to commercial in confidence considerations we are not able to release financial data below the national level at this time.