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25 Apr 2006 : Column 1061W—continued
Departmental Advertising Costs
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the public information advertising campaigns run by his Department in each of the last seven years; and how much his Department spent on (a) newspapers and (b) television advertising in each of those campaigns. [64502]
Mrs. McGuire: The Department for Work and Pensions was formed in June 2001 from parts of the former Department for Social Security, the former Department for Education and Employment, and the Employment Service. Information prior to 2001 is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The information for other years is as follows:
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Notes:
1. The tables do not include the following as the information is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate cost:
spend by non-departmental bodies for which the Department is responsible;
details of highly localised publicity activity by the Department's customer-facing businesses;
recruitment or procurement advertising;
Jobcentre Plus publicity during 2002 to 2003 as at that time allocations sat with individual policy teams and within regional budgets.
2. The figures in these tables refer to media spend only, excluding production, direct mail, public relations and other costs.
3. All figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand.
4. All figures are quoted net of VAT.
5. Press includes national press, regional press, specialist press, advertorials and featurelink; to provide costs for newspaper only advertising would incur disproportionate cost.
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Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much (a) his Department and (b) its agencies spent on advertising for job vacancies in each of the last five years. [65968]
Mrs. McGuire: This information is not collected centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Disability Employment Advisers
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what information is made available to disability employment advisers by his Department about organisations that provide (a) support and (b) supervision for supported permitted work; and what funding is available to such organisations to provide these services. [64276]
Margaret Hodge: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 20 April 2006:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking what information is made available to disability employment advisers by his Department about organisations that provide (a) support and (b) supervision for supported permitted work; and what funding is available to such organisations to provide these services. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
As part of their training, all Disability Employment Advisers are made aware of the provisions for Supported Permitted Work, the relevant benefit legislation and the local organisations that provide this service. Advisers are encouraged to build relationships with organisations who provide such support, typically these would be local authorities and organisations involved with employment for disabled people. This ensures that Advisers are aware of all possibilities of support for customers. Detailed guidance on Supported Permitted Work, setting out the type of support available, is also available.
The Department does not provide funding to organisations for the work they do supporting those participating in Supported Permitted Work.
Disabled People (Heating Bills)
Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assistance with heating bills is provided to disabled people in receipt of benefits (a) throughout the year and (b) during the winter months. [64377]
Mrs. McGuire:
Disability living allowance and attendance allowance provide severely disabled people with a contribution towards the extra costs they face because of the effects of their disability. Recipients are free to spend these benefits in any way they choose, During the winter months, disabled people in receipt of
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certain benefits may be eligible to receive a cold weather payment. Cold weather payments are intended to provide extra help to the most vulnerable people towards additional heating costs during a period of cold weather. People receiving pension credit are eligible. Income support or income-based jobseeker's allowance customers with a pensioner or disability premium, or who have a child under five or a child who is disabled in their family, are eligible because they are considered to be the most vulnerable.
Winter fuel payments of up to £200 are available to disabled people aged 60 or over, and up to £300 for those aged 80 or over, regardless of whether they are in receipt of any benefit.
Pension Credit
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what criteria are used by (a) the Pension Service and (b) other agencies for which his Department has responsibility in (i) identifying and (ii) approaching people who have not applied for pension credit but might be eligible for it. [64506]
Mr. Timms: The Pension Service uses savings and tax information obtained from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs—together with administrative data from the Department—to help identify those customers whose income and savings levels would exclude them from entitlement to pension credit. The Pension Service then assesses the most appropriate way of approaching those customers with potential eligibility.
Pensions
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he is taking to ensure that Royal Mail pensioners will be paid their accrued pension benefits in full in the event of Royal Mail being unable to meet its obligations. [64160]
Mr. Timms: The Government do not guarantee company pension schemes. However, the Pensions Act 2004 puts in place specific measures to provide support, advice and protection to schemes and to scheme members. These include:
The Pensions Regulator which has a broad range of powers to help it fulfil its statutory objectives which include protecting the benefits of occupational pension scheme members. The Regulator will act quickly to anticipate and tackle any risks to those members;
A new scheme funding regime which requires trustees and employers to agree an appropriate funding target for the scheme and a plan for eradicating any shortfall; and
The Pension Protection Fund which will provide protection to members of eligible defined benefit occupational pension schemes where the employer becomes insolvent (after 6 April 2005) and leaves the scheme under funded.
As a defined benefit occupational pension scheme, the Royal Mail scheme is eligible to benefit from these arrangements.
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the countries where British pensioners living abroad (a) do and (b) do not have their pensions uprated; and if he will make a statement. [65922]
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Mr. Timms: We uprate the UK state pension to people who are living outside the UK where there is a legal requirement to do so under either the terms of a reciprocal agreement or EC law. The following lists show those countries where the state pensions are uprated; it is not uprated in any other country The UK has reciprocal agreements covering the uprating of state pensions with the following countries:
Yugoslavia (including the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).
UK nationals living in the following countries are entitled to upratings of state pension under EC law on co-ordination of social security:
1 The UK's reciprocal agreements with these countries have generally been superseded by EC law on co-ordination of social security.
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