Buildings

Michael Dugher: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what refurbishments to his Department's buildings have been carried out in the last 24 months; and at what cost. [168813]

Mr Hoban: The Department provides services to more than 20 million customers and delivers these services from 900 buildings accommodating 100,000 staff. Since 1998 the Department's accommodation has been provided and managed by its service partner, Telereal Trillium.

In line with its current business plans, the Department is undergoing an estate rationalisation programme which by April 2013 had saved £51.8 million. To facilitate

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the Department has spent £11.2 million in the last 24 months on building rationalisation and refurbishment activity.

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many square metres of office space his Department (a) owns and (b) rents in London; and what the value is of that property. [169429]

Mr Hoban: Since 1998 the Department for Work and Pensions occupies the majority of its accommodation under a private finance initiative (PFI) known as the PRIME contract. Under the terms of this PFI the Department leases back fully serviced accommodation from its private sector partner Telereal Trillium

Therefore the Department does not own any properties under the PRIME contract.

The Department rents 85 sites which equates to 176,061m² of space across London. The vast majority of these are operational sites such as jobcentres, contact centres and processing centres.

The Valuation Office Agency 2012 valuations placed on these properties amounted to £365,371,623.

Employment and Support Allowance

Sheila Gilmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many individuals placed in the work-related activity group since 2008 have received a prognosis statement that specifically advises work is unlikely in the longer term. [169107][Official Report, 22 November 2013, Vol. 570, c. 10-12MC.]

Mr Hoban: There is no such prognosis as being unable to return to work in the longer-term. However, the following table shows how many claimants have been allocated a prognosis of two years or more:

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Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for what reasons applicants for employment and support allowance with a debilitating progressive condition found unlikely to return to work by an Atos Healthcare professional are being placed, following a work capability assessment, in the work-related activity group; and if he will make a statement. [169124]

Mr Hoban: A claimant placed in the work related activity group is considered able to undertake work- related activity which may help some with progressive conditions find suitable employment. In addition, although the health of some claimants can deteriorate, others may find their function improves whilst others adapt to their condition. This could be in response to changes in treatment, rehabilitation or new treatments that become available. Appropriate review ensures that an individual continues to receive the right level of support, including being moved into the support group if necessary.

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Employment Schemes: Young People

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) jobs, (b) apprenticeships and (c) work experience placements have been created in Birmingham since the launch of the Youth Contract; and how many his Department estimates will be created in each such category up to 2015. [169122]

Mr Hoban: Between April 2012 and May 2013 there have been 2,230 work experience and 550 sector-based academy starts in Birmingham. We do not have a breakdown of the number of wage incentive payments, or apprentice grant to employers made in Birmingham since the launch of the Youth Contract. A regional breakdown of the number of wage incentive payments will be included in the next set of official statistics.

There are no forward projections on how many wage incentives, apprenticeship grants to employers or work experience placements will be created in Birmingham up to 2015.

Food Banks: Voucher Schemes

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which organisations his Department consulted prior to the redesign of the food bank vouchers issued by Jobcentre Plus staff to clients; and when each was consulted. [169123]

Mr Hoban: Jobcentre Plus signposts people to food banks only; it does not issue vouchers.

Housing Benefit

Mr Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 2 September 2013, Official Report, column 250W on social security benefits: EU nationals, what the evidential basis is for housing benefit being a benefit that facilitates access to the labour market for the purposes of EU law. [168933]

Mr Hoban: Housing benefit is linked to job seeker’s allowance, and classed as an in-work benefit in EU law. EU nationals only have access to housing benefit when they have satisfied that they are habitually resident in the United Kingdom, and those without a relevant right to reside cannot qualify for income-related benefits. All those who are entitled and eligible for benefits are treated equally, regardless of nationality, and assessed appropriately.

The issues of housing benefit and employment are covered in a number of DWP research reports, for example:

Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No 521 ‘Social housing and worklessness: Qualitative research findings’ by Del Roy Fletcher, Tony Gore, Kesia Reeve and David Robinson with Nadia Bashir, Rosalind Goudie and Sonia O'Toole:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130314010347/http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2007-2008/rrep521.pdf

Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No 482 ‘Social housing and worklessness: Key policy messages’ by Del Roy Fletcher, Tony Gore, Kesia Reeve and David Robinson:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130314010347/http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2007-2008/rrep482.pdf

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Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No 383 ‘Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit as in work benefits; claimants' and advisors' knowledge, attitudes and experiences’ by Caroline Turley and Andrew Thomas:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130314010347/http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2005-2006/rrep383.pdf

Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No 79 ‘Moving into work: bridging housing costs’ by Bruce Stafford, Claire Heaver, Nicola Croden, Anne Abel Smith, Susan Maguire and Jill Vincent:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130314010347/http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rrep079.pdf

Though these reports date from a number of years ago and in many cases do not reflect the current system of housing benefit, they have been used, where appropriate, in designing the current system of housing support.

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what action he is taking to monitor the way in which the discretionary housing payment budgets are being used at local level. [169357]

Steve Webb: This year, reporting measures have been introduced to monitor how discretionary housing payments (DHP) are supporting people affected by the welfare reforms. Since April, local authorities have been recording the number of successful DHP awards which have been made to claimants affected by either the benefit cap, the removal of the spare room subsidy in the social rented sector, local housing allowance reforms in the private rented sector, or a combination of these reforms. In addition, local authorities will record the broad or main outcome of the award.

The first return from local authorities is expected later this year.

Housing Benefit: Private Rented Housing

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people living in private rented accommodation in (a) Ashfield constituency, (b) Nottinghamshire, (c) the East Midlands and (d) England are in receipt of housing benefit. [169057]

Steve Webb: The information requested on housing benefit claimants in the private rented sector in Ashfield constituency, Nottinghamshire, East Midlands and England can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk

The local authorities that will need to be extracted for Nottinghamshire are Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Broxtowe, Gedling, Mansfield, Newark and Sherwood and Rushcliffe. The unitary authority of Nottingham should also be included.

Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:

https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Stat-Xplore_User_Guide.htm

Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of armed forces veterans who have been affected by the spare room subsidy in Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency. [169298]

Steve Webb: The information requested is not available.

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Publishing

Michael Dugher: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department has spent in each of the last three years on hard copy printing of documents for external audiences. [168637]

Mr Hoban: Spend in each of the last three full years and the current year to date is as follows:

This includes the cost of printing all forms, information leaflets, marketing and publicity materials, reports and parliamentary papers, all of which are available to individuals and organisations outside DWP. The figures do not include the cost of printing letters sent to claimants and customers.

Social Security Benefits

Sir Roger Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what progress his Department has made on reaching an agreement with the European Commission in relation to developing a form suited to the exchange of medical information for benefit purposes; and if he will make a statement. [169125]

Mr Hoban: The EU administrative commission on the coordination of social security systems has established an expert ad-hoc group to examine the format of forms to exchange medical information for benefit purposes. An expert from this Department represents the United Kingdom on that group to ensure that our concerns are addressed in the design of new forms, and that these will be suitable for the transmission of medical information for UK benefits. The group is expected to report to the administrative commission by the end of the year.

Travel

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department spent on travel for departmental officials in each of the last five years. [169015]

Mr Hoban: In line with the Government's austerity agenda, the Department for Work and Pensions has taken vigorous actions to enhance its business travel policy. The DWP's business travel policy actively discourages travel, unless other alternatives have been examined and exhausted. Where travel is deemed appropriate it requires the use of the most cost effective mode of transport.

The expenditure on travel for DWP officials in each of the last five years is as follows:

This information should be viewed in the context of a Department employing around 100,000 staff.

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Unemployment: Wirral

Mr Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the number of people in each ward who have been unemployed for (a) six, (b) 12 and (c) 24 months in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. [169078]

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 Peter Fullerton, dated September 2013:

In the absence of the 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, what assessment he has made of the number of people in each ward who have been unemployed for (a) six, (b) 12 and (c) 24 months in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. (169078)

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles unemployment statistics for local areas from the Annual Population Survey following International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions. However, estimates of unemployment for the requested geography are not available due to small sample sizes.

As an alternative, in Table 1 we have provided the number of persons claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA), for each ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral for (a) up to 6 months, (b) 6 to 12 months, (c) 12 to 24 months and (d) 24 months and over, for August 2013.

The counts of people claiming JSA are those who are claiming benefits for unemployment related purposes. At a UK level the total number of JSA claimants is around two thirds of the total unemployment level.

National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and claimant count are available on the NOMIS website at:

http://www.nomisweb.co.uk

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Universal Credit

Mr Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when housing and council tax benefit administration grants will cease to be paid as a result of the introduction of universal credit. [168363]

Steve Webb: Housing benefit administration grant is included within the current spending review. We will consider this as part of the next spending review with consideration to the migration of claims from housing benefit onto universal credit.

The council tax benefit administration grant has ceased from March 2013 as a result of the cessation of the council tax benefit scheme. Funding towards administering the localised council tax support schemes is the responsibility of DCLG and the devolved Administrations in Scotland and Wales.

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether arrears will be deducted directly from a recipient of universal credit with rent arrears which trigger a transfer to managed payments. [169101]

Steve Webb: In cases that are converted to managed payment of rent as a result of the rent arrears trigger, arrears will be deducted from the UC award.

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how his Department will be notified of a universal credit recipient's rent arrears. [169118]

Steve Webb: DWP can be notified of a universal credit claimant's rent arrears by the landlord, the claimant

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themselves or a representative on their behalf. In the UC Pathfinder rent arrears are notified to the UC service centre.

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when a recipient of universal credit accrues eight weeks' rent arrears and is moved to managed payments, how long will it be before they are moved back to direct payments. [169119]

Steve Webb: Under universal credit we will return claimants to direct payment of rent once we are satisfied that they are in a position to manage their affairs. We expect that managed payments will remain in place at least until the outstanding arrears have been recovered. One of the failings of the current system is that decisions to move claimants to managed payments of rent are not systematically reviewed. How long managed payments remain in place beyond that will depend upon individual circumstance, but we expect most claimants would not be switched back to direct payments for a further six months.

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether he proposes that recipients of universal credit, who already have rent arrears when they claim, will be moved onto direct payment. [169120]

Steve Webb: It will depend on the claimant's circumstances. All new claims will be looked at on an individual basis to establish whether the claimant is in a position to manage his or her own affairs. Managed payments of rent will only be considered for those claimants who cannot genuinely manage the standard monthly payment and as a result there is a risk to the household's accommodation.

Winter Fuel Payments

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) Ashfield constituency, (b) Nottinghamshire, (c) the East Midlands and (d) England were in receipt of the winter fuel allowance in each of the last five years. [169041]

Steve Webb: The information is in the following table: