Employment and Support Allowance
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what funding his Department has allocated to offering treatment to (a) drug and (b) alcohol-related employment and support allowance claimants when universal credit is introduced in October 2013. [158927]
Mr Hoban: No funding has been allocated by my Department for offering treatment to (a) drug and (b) alcohol-related employment and support allowance claimants when universal credit is introduced in October 2013.
Food Banks
Glenda Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will commission an independent review of the use of food banks in (a) Greater London and (b) the UK. [158930]
Mr Hoban: Food banks are not part of Government policy and, as such, the Department for Work and Pensions does not hold or collect information on them. The Department has no plans to review the use of food banks.
DEFRA has commissioned research to review evidence on the landscape of food provision and access in the UK. The work comprises a short research project assessing publicly available evidence on the provision of food aid in the UK. The conclusions of this work will be available in the summer and published on the Government's website.
Habitual Residence Test
Mr Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the oral answer of 20 May 2013, Official Report, column 890, on benefits: immigration, in what ways the Government are strengthening the habitual residence test; and when the strengthened test will be operative. [159251]
Mr Hoban: As announced by the Prime Minister on 25 March 2013 the Department is currently working on strengthening the Habitual Residence Test.
This will increase the range and depth of evidence collected from claimants to improve decision making; while ensuring that the test remains within existing legal parameters. The strengthened question set will be supported by an IT system which will tailor the questions asked to individual circumstances.
Building work on the IT design has started and will be completed before the end of 2013.
Jobseeker's Allowance
Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will publish data on the transport costs incurred by claimants of jobseeker's allowance in each (a) age group and (b) parliamentary constituency. [159349]
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Mr Hoban: The Department has no plans to publish data on transport costs incurred by claimants of jobseeker’s allowance at the present time.
Pensions
Mr Bain: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in each parliamentary constituency are members of (a) occupational and (b) non-occupational private pension schemes; and what the average total pensions savings held by people in each constituency is. [159344]
Steve Webb: The information requested is not readily available and has not previously been published as official statistics. We will consider alongside the Office for National Statistics whether it is feasible to produce the statistics accurately, and within the disproportionate cost limit. If so, we will issue them in an official statistics release in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
Mr Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent discussions he has had with (a) the Chancellor of the Exchequer and (b) pension companies, to ensure all pension companies provide trivial commutation of pension pots; what assessment he has made of the number of pension funds which are not providing trivial commutation to policyholders; and if he will bring forward proposals to make the offer of trivial commutation to policyholders compulsory. [159411]
Steve Webb: DWP Ministers have had no such discussions as trivial commutation is a matter for Treasury.
Scotland
Mr Darling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff of his Department are located in Scotland; and how many such staff work on services provided to residents of England and Wales. [158998]
Mr Hoban: At 31 March 2013 the number of employees of the Department located in Scotland was 11,575. This number equates to 10,318 full-time equivalents.
The Department delivers a number of services on a nationwide network basis. It is therefore not possible to breakdown the number of employees located in Scotland, who provide services to residents in England and Wales.
Social Security Benefits
Mr Bain: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make an assessment of the effect of errors in payment of claims for (a) employment and support allowance, (b) jobseeker's allowance, (c) housing benefit and (d) income support on weekly average household disposable income in each region and constituent part of the UK in the financial years (i) 2009-10, (ii) 2010-11, (iii) 2011-12 and (iv) 2012-13. [157913]
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Mr Hoban: Between 2009 and 2013 (provisional estimates), the overall amount of benefits overpaid due to claimant error increased from 0.8% to 0.9% and the amount overpaid due to official error reduced from 0.6% to 0.4%.
Between 2009 and 2013 (provisional estimates), the overall amount of benefits underpaid due to claimant
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error remained at 0.6% and the amount underpaid due to official error remained at 0.3%.
The specific figures for the benefits listed are shown in the following table:
| 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13(2) | ||||||
| % | £ million | % | £ million | % | £ million | % | £ million | ||
| (1) ESA overpayments and underpayments due to official error were measured in 2012/13 for the first time (2) Provisional Note: Figures rounded to nearest £10 million | |||||||||
These figures are available at the Great Britain level only. The information on the effect on weekly average household disposable income is not available.
Universal Credit
Mr Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many meetings he has had with ministerial colleagues in (a) the Department of Health and (b) the Department for Education on the treatment of passported benefits under universal credit; [159317]
(2) how many meetings he has had with Ministers and officials in (a) the Department of Health and (b) the Department for Education on the treatment of passported benefits under universal credit. [159511]
Mr Hoban: The Minister for Welfare Reform has met with ministerial colleagues and officials, including those from the Department of Health and the Department for Education, on a number of occasions to discuss the treatment of passported benefits under universal credit. We are aware of the importance of passported benefits for those families that receive them and we continue to work closely across Government to ensure that passported benefits remain available to those families that need them the most.
Vacancies: Internet
Pamela Nash: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many employers are registered with Universal Jobmatch. [159318]
Mr Hoban: The number of employer accounts created on the Universal Jobmatch service between go-live on 19 November 2012 and 31 May 2013 is 418,427.