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Pensioners' Incomes
Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many pensioners in Mid-Sussex receive the over-80s premium on the basic state pension; and if he will make a statement. [148358]
Mr. Rooker: It is estimated that there were 2,321,800 pensioners residing in Great Britain and overseas, at 31 March 2000, who were in receipt of a basic state pension including the over-80s age addition. We further estimate that 6,300 resided in the Unitary Authority of Mid-Sussex.
- Note:
- The case count figures quoted are in thousands and are rounded to the nearest hundred.
- Source:
- 5 per cent. sample from the Pension Strategy Computer System at 31 March 2000.
Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many pensioners in Mid-Sussex constituency have a weekly gross income of (a) under £100, (b) under £150, (c) under £200, (d) under £500 and (e) under £1,000. [148356]
Mr. Rooker: The information is not available.
Acquired Brain Injury
Ms Blears: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what plans he has to help individuals with acquired brain injury back into work; [147961]
- (2) what guidance he gives to local authorities in Greater Manchester on support for vocational rehabilitation for individuals with acquired brain injury. [147962]
Mr. Bayley: This Department does not give guidance to local authorities on support for vocational rehabilitation. But, in partnership with the Department for Education and Employment, we are setting up a national network of Job Brokers under the auspices of the New
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Deal for Disabled People. The brokers will offer people receiving incapacity benefits, including those with acquired brain injury, support, guidance and preparation to find paid work and move off benefit dependence.
One of our current New Deal for Disabled People innovative schemes is run by Rehab UK in conjunction with Rehab Scotland, the Shaw Trust and the Employment Service. Referrals to the scheme are made by employers, and three rehabilitation hospitals provide a programme to support adults with acquired disabilities, especially acquired brain injury, to retain or secure new employment. The project has created unique pathways between medical rehabilitation, vocational assessment, job coaching and supported employment to help employees return to work or find new employment.
Benefits (Mid-Sussex)
Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what percentage of people of working age in the Mid-Sussex constituency receive (a) Income Support and (b) disability benefits; and if he will make a statement. [148357]
Mr. Bayley: Information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is as follows.
As at May 2000, 1,600 people of working age were receiving Income Support in the Mid-Sussex constituency, with a further 2,000 people receiving disability benefits.
- Notes:
- 1. Working age is 16 to 59 for females and 16 to 64 for males.
- 2. Disability benefits are Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, Disability Living Allowance or Income Support with a disability-related premium. No constituency level data are available on the number of Industrial Injury Benefit recipients.
- 3. Although benefit recipients can receive a combination of disability benefits, each person is counted only once.
- 4. Figures quoted are rounded to the nearest hundred.
- 5. Figures are not held for the total number of people of working age in the constituency, so it is not possible to express these figures in percentage terms.
HEALTH
Child Support
Mr. Fearn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many parents with care spent the Christmas and New Year holiday period with no regular payments from non-resident parents in respect of the maintenance of their children; and how many children were affected. [146167]
Angela Eagle: I have been asked to reply.
The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Mike Isaac to Mr. Ronnie Fearn, dated 1 February 2001:
- I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Health about the Child Support Agency.
- Mr Smith is unavailable and therefore I am writing to you on his behalf.
- The information is not available in the format or for the time period requested. Such information as is available is in the table at Annex A, and shows statistics for the quarter ending August 2000.
- The figures have been broken down to show the status of the Parent With Care.
- Parents with Care on Income Support (IS) or Jobseekers' Allowance (Income Based) (JSA(IB)) whose Child Maintenance is paid to the Agency by the Non Resident Parent are protected against non payment of Child Maintenance. This is because IS/JSA(IB) is paid in full to the customer and any maintenance received by the CSA is retained by the Secretary of State to offset benefit payments.
- Figures do not include cases that are not paid through the Agency collection service. In these cases the Non Resident Parent (NRP) pays Child Maintenance directly to the Parent With Care (PWC) is in receipt of IS or JSA(IB) the amount of benefit they receive will be reduced by an amount equal to the maintenance due.
- These figures do not include any cases where an assessment of maintenance is yet to be made.
- The Agency currently exceeds its Secretary of State target of making 98% of payments to Parents With Care within 10 days of receipt from the Non Resident Parent. From April 2000 to December 2000 2,397,676 payments were made to Parents With Care; 2,353,877 (98.9%) of these were made within 10 days of receipt.
- The Department's Analytical Services Division produces a CSA Quarterly Summary of Statistics that is available in the House of Commons Library and you may find the information it contains of further interest.
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| Numbers are in thousands | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parent With Care receiving | Total number of PWCs | NRP fully cash compliant | Percentage | NRP partially cash compliant | Percentage | NRP nil cash compliance | Percentage |
| Income Support | 95.1 | 45.5 | 48 | 22.9 | 24 | 26.7 | 28 |
| JSA (IB) | 1.7 | 0.7 | 41 | 0.4 | 24 | 0.6 | 35 |
| WFTC | 79.6 | 44.1 | 55 | 20.7 | 26 | 14.8 | 19 |
| Not receiving any of the above benefits | 104.2 | 58.2 | 56 | 23.3 | 22 | 22.7 | 22 |
| All | 280.6 | 148.5 | 53 | 67.3 | 24 | 64.8 | 23 |
Notes:
1. Figures are based on a 5 per cent sample of the Child Support Computer System, therefore are subject to sampling error.
2. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred, and are shown in thousands.
3. The table does not include those cases where payment is not made via the Agency's collection service
I hope this is helpful.
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NHS Beds
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will set out the definitions of (a) critical care, (b) intensive care, (c) high dependency, (d) intermediate care, (e) continuing care and (f) acute care beds; and if he will provide the numbers of beds and associated staff in each case as at 1 December 1999 and 1 December 2000 for each relevant NHS region, health authority and NHS trust; [141498]
(2) how many extra (a) critical care beds and (b) acute care beds there were in each London NHS trust on (i) 1 December and (ii) December 1999; how many extra staff are required to make each bed fully operational; how many staff were in post, broken down by professional group, on (A) 1 December and (b) 1 December 1999; and what the vacancy level was in each case. [141508]
Mr. Denham [holding answer 13 December 2000]: The definitions of critical care, intensive care, high dependency and acute care beds, as used in central returns to the Department, have been placed in the Library. Intermediate care beds are not currently identified separately in central returns. The working definition of an intermediate care bed for future monitoring purposes is included. Continuing care is defined by the service provided.
A special bed census, set up to inform the winter planning process, counted the number of available beds in the following categories--critical care (which includes both intensive care and high dependency) and general and acute. A table showing the number of critical care and general and acute beds on 1 December 1999 and 1 December 2000 for each National Health Service region and health authority will be placed in the Library. More detailed information on in-patient bed numbers by ward type and numbers of NHS residential care beds are published annually in "Bed availability and occupancy, England"; and on adult critical care beds in "Intensive care and high dependency provision, England". Both publications are in the Library.
It is not possible to distinguish staff by bed category. The workforce censuses are collected as at 30 September of each year and copies of the 1999 census detailed results--"Department of Health NHS Hospital and Community Health Services Non-Medical Workforce Census England: 30 September 1999" and "Department of Health NHS Hospital, Public Health Medicine and Community Health Service Medical and Dental Workforce Census England at 30 September 1999" are available in the Library. The September 2000 workforce censuses information will be published shortly. The Department of Health Vacancy Survey is carried out as at 31 March of each year and copies of the 1999 and 2000 surveys are available in the Library.
The twice yearly census of available adult critical care beds counts open and staffed beds by location and the level of care, i.e. intensive or high dependency, provided on the census day. Use of critical care beds will vary depending on the clinical needs of the patient and the staffing available. This definition was also used for the 1 December special census.
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Critical care beds include both general and specialist intensive care and high dependency beds in the following locations:
- intensive care unit
- high dependency unit
- combined intensive care and high dependency unit
- combined intensive care, high dependency and coronary care unit
- cardiothoracic unit
- neurological unit
- liver unit
- spinal injury
- burns unit
- general or specialist high dependency beds outside units.
An intensive care bed is a critical care bed that was being used for intensive care on the census day.
A high dependency bed is a critical care bed that was being used for high dependency care on the census day.
An intermediate care bed is a bed in a residential setting (such as community hospital, nursing home, rehabilitation centre, residential care home or step-down facility in an acute hospital) for people who are medically stable but need a short period of rehabilitation to enable them to re-gain sufficient physical functioning and confidence to return safely to their own home. This "residential rehabilitation" service model may be either 'step-down', i.e. following a stay in an acute hospital, or 'step-up', i.e. following a referral by (say) general practitioner, social services or rapid response team in cases which would otherwise necessitate acute admission or admission to longer-term residential care.
Acute beds include beds for adults and children, critical care for adults and children, coronary care, palliative care and younger physically disabled. The count of acute beds does not include maternity beds or beds on wards designated for older people or for people with mental illness or learning disabilities or residential care beds.
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