§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) if he will estimate the number of people entitled to winter fuel payments who have yet to receive them; [112947]
(2) if he will estimate the number of appeals against (a) failure to award and (b) level of winter fuel payments that (i) his Department has received, (ii) were successful and (iii) are still outstanding. [112948]
728W
Numbers of people in families where one or more adults were in paid work and where the income is below half contemporary mean income, excluding the self-employed
Before housing costs
Million Year Total people Total Children Total people in lone parent families Children in lone parent families Total people in couple families Children in couple families FES 1981 1.1 0.6 0.1 0.0 1.0 0.6 1987 1.5 0.6 0.1 0.0 1.1 0.6 1988–89 1.9 0.7 0.1 0.1 1.3 0.7 1990–91 2.3 0.9 0.3 0.2 1.5 0.8 1991–92 2.4 1.0 0.3 0.2 1.6 0.8 1992–93 2.3 0.9 0.2 0.1 1.5 0.8 1993–94 2.1 0.9 0.2 0.1 1.4 0.8 1994–95 2.3 0.9 0.3 0.2 1.5 0.8 1995–96 2.4 1.0 0.3 0.2 1.5 0.8 FRS 1994–95 1.9 0.7 0.1 0.1 1.2 0.7 1995–96 1.8 0.7 0.1 0.1 1.2 0.6 1996–97 2.6 1.1 0.2 0.2 1.7 0.9 1997–98 2.8 1.1 0.3 0.2 1.8 0.9
§ Angela EagleAt the end of January 2000, it was estimated that around 99 per cent. of customers who qualified under the existing arrangements had received their full entitlement to a Winter Fuel Payment. The remaining 1 per cent. were those customers whose girocheques had been returned, uncollected, from the Post Office or who queried the amount paid.
Following the European Court's ruling in the Taylor case, we have announced our intention to extend help through the Winter Fuel Payment scheme to men as well as women aged 60 and over. At the same time we also announced our intention to make backdated payments to all people who will be included within the scope of the scheme in respect of the previous three winters (i.e. 1997–88, 1998–99, 1999–2000).
We are carefully considering what arrangements need to be made in order to issue payments accurately and securely to customers not already within the scope of the existing scheme. An announcement will be made as soon as possible once plans are further advanced.
A total of 43,000 customers have queried the level of their entitlement to a Winter Fuel Payment. Each claim was reconsidered in line with the Decision-Making and Appeal rules, resulting in the issue of a "top-up" payment to some customers. Where the original decision was not changed by the reconsideration, an appeal was sent to the Appeals Service. The total number of appeals to date is 255, but information on whether these have been successful or are still outstanding could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.