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20 Dec 2005 : Column 2865W—continued
Disability Living Allowance
Mr. David Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Midlothian are in receipt of (a) incapacity benefit, (b) disability living allowance, (c) attendance allowance, (d) reduced earnings allowance, (e) retirement allowance and (f) industrial injuries benefit. [37559]
Mrs. McGuire: The most recent available information for each benefit is in the following tables.
| Number | |
|---|---|
| Incapacity benefit and severe disablement allowance | 4,400 |
| Disability living allowance | 5,000 |
| Attendance allowance | 2,000 |
Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.
2. Parliamentary constituency of claimant (Westminster). For the May 2005 General Election, the constituencies in Scotland changed. The above figures refer to the post May 2005 Westminster boundaries.
3. Incapacity benefit (IB) and severe disability allowance (SDA) 'claimant' figures include all IB and SDA (including IB credits only cases).
4. Attendance allowance and disability living allowance 'claimant' figures exclude people with entitlement where the payment has been suspended, for example if they are in hospital.
Source:
DWP Information Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study
Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.
2. Parliamentary constituency of claimant (Westminster). For the May 2005 General Election, the constituencies in Scotland changed. The above figures refer to the pre May 2005 Westminster boundaries.
Source:
100 per cent. sample from the Industrial Injuries Computer System (IICS)
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Employment Zone (Tower Hamlets)
Mr. Galloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what the total cost is to date of implementing the (a) Employment Zone and (b) Working Neighbourhood pilots in the London borough of Tower Hamlets; [36369]
(2) if he will list the payments agreed by his Department to each private contractor for the Employment Zone in the London borough of Tower Hamlets; [36371]
(3) what targets have been set for the (a) Employment Zone and (b) Working Neighbourhood pilots in the London borough of Tower Hamlets; and what the performance has been against each one. [36368]
Margaret Hodge: The specific information requested is not available.
Health and Safety Report
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when the Government plans to respond to the EU report on Health and Safety in the Workplace; and if he will make a statement. [33797]
Mrs. McGuire: I am unsure to which report the hon. Member refers. However, the European Commission has recently published its second consultation paper on a simplification proposal to rationalise the reporting arrangements on the practical implementation of occupational safety and health directives.
At this stage of the process, only employers and workers organisations are involved in the consultation. Therefore the UK Government will not respond to this paper. Once the social partner consultation process has been completed, the European Commission may propose a directive. The UK will support any proposal that seeks to simplify the current reporting system. We expect to see a proposal towards the end of the UK presidency or early in 2006.
Housing Allowances
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the cost of extending local housing allowances to the whole of the UK; how much he estimates the administration cost will be; and what the cost of administering housing benefit under the previous arrangements are estimated to be in the next three years. [31586]
Mr. Plaskitt: The costs of any possible local housing allowance scheme extended across Great Britain would depend on the exact design. This would be determined by the experience of the current local housing allowance pathfinder pilot areas, for which the evaluation is still ongoing.
The Department does not collect management information relating to the cost to local authorities of administering housing benefit under the existing
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national scheme. The Department has commissioned a research project looking into the overall administration costs of housing benefit and council tax benefit. This project is near completion and will help us obtain a better indication of these costs in the future.
Human Resource Management Strategy
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on his Department's human resource management strategy. [24669]
Mrs. McGuire: The Department's staff are integral to the achievement of its objectives. In order to support the delivery of its work agenda and realise the benefits of modernisation, the Department's human resource strategy is for a smaller work force that is more highly skilled, more productive, better motivated and rewarded, delivering an improved level of customer service.
A key element of the Department's human resource strategy, set out in the 2004 Spending Review, is the managed reduction in staff numbers of 30,000 posts by March 2008 taking place alongside significant investment in information systems. Against this target, as at the end of September 2005 the Department had reduced staff numbers by 14,215.
Incapacity Benefit
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many incapacity benefit claimants in the Gravesham constituency have been receiving the benefit for five years or more. [33608]
Mrs. McGuire: As at May 2005 there were 3,500 people claiming incapacity benefit or severe disability allowance in the Gravesham parliamentary constituency. Of these 1,700 had been claiming the benefit for five years or more.
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on how many occasions incapacity benefit sanctions have been applied at the discretion of personal advisers in each of the last five years in each region. [34284]
Mrs. McGuire: The information requested is not collected routinely and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of people in each (a) parliamentary constituency in England and (b) English local authority area are in receipt of incapacity benefit. [34669]
Mrs. McGuire: The information is not available in the format requested, because population estimates are not available by parliamentary constituency. The available information has been placed in the Library.
Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people living in (a) the Wakefield area and (b) Hemsworth constituency were in receipt of incapacity benefit in each of the last 10 years. [34670]
Mrs. McGuire:
The information is in the table.
20 Dec 2005 : Column 2868W
Notes:
1. Figures for the years 1996 to 1999 have been produced using 5 per cent. data and have been rated up in accordance with the Great Britain WPLS 100 per cent. IB/SDA totals.
2. Figures are shown in thousands and rounded to the nearest hundred. Totals may not sum due to rounding.
3. 'Claimant' figures include all IB and SDA (including IB credits only cases).
Source:
DWP Information Directorate, 5 per cent. Samples from 1996 to 1999 and Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS) 100 per cent. data thereafter.
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