§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, (1) pursuant to the Green Paper page 83, Cm 3805, New Ambitions for Our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, what assessment he has made of the quality of housing and housing management at present, and as at April 1997 and March 1998; [54602]
(2) pursuant to the Green Paper, page 84, Cm 3805, New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, what is his definition of transparency about entitlements and costs; and what assessment he has made of the extent of such transparency at present and as at April 1997 and March 1998; [54582]
(3) pursuant to the Green Paper, Cm 3805, New Ambitions for Our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, page 83, what is the extent of high-quality second-tier pension provision at present; and what it was in April 1997 and March 1998; [54610]
(4) pursuant to the Green Paper Cm 3805, New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, (p85) what estimate he has made of the proportion of customers who regard the benefit system as personalised and tailored to their individual needs, at present and as at April 1997 and March 1998; [54586]
(5) pursuant to the Green Paper page 83, Cm 3805, New Ambitions for Our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, what assessments he has made of the (a) simplicity, (b) clarity and (c) fairness of the system for determining entitlement to disability benefits at present, and as at April 1997 and March 1998; [54598]
(6) pursuant to the Green Paper Cm 3805, New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, (p84) what assessment he has made of the clarity to claimants of the gateways for eligibility for benefits at present and as at April 1997 and March 1998; [54590]
(7) pursuant to the Green Paper, page 85, Cm 3805, New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, what assessment he has made of the extent of duplication between agencies, and the extent to which the 745W best use is being made of new technology to deliver services at present and as at April 1997 and March 1998; [54584]
(8) pursuant to the Green Paper page 83, Cm 3805, New Ambitions for Our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, how many disabled people are able to work at present; and how many were able to do so in April 1997 and March 1998; [54600]
(9) pursuant to the Green Paper, Cm 3805, New Ambitions for Our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, page 83, what is the Government's definition of a decent income in retirement; how many people receive such an income in retirement at present, and how many did so in April 1997 and March 1998; [54608]
(10) pursuant to the Green Paper, Cm 3805, New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, page 82, what is the proportion of (a) lone parents, (b) people with a long-term illness and (c) disabled people of working age in touch with the labour market; what were the proportions in April 1997 and March 1998; and what is his definition of being in touch with the labour market; [54607]
(11) pursuant to the Green Paper, page 84, Cm 3805, New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, what assessment he has made of the level of collaboration between the Employment Service and the Benefits Agency to promote jobs rather than benefit dependency at present and as at April 1997 and March 1998; [54583]
(12) pursuant to the Green Paper, Cm 3805, New Ambitions for Our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, page 83, what assessment he has made of public confidence in the quality and regulation of financial services including pensions, at present and as at April 1997 and March 1998; [54611]
(13) pursuant to the Green Paper Cm 3805, New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, (p85) what assessment he has made of the level of customer satisfaction with the delivery of benefits at present and as at April 1997 and March 1998; [54587]
(14) pursuant to the Green Paper Cm 3805, New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, (p84) to what extent he has developed a model for tackling the problems of the most deprived areas; and what the model involves; [54591]
(15) pursuant to the Green Paper page 83, Cm 3805, New Ambitions for Our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, what are the level of spending on incapacity benefit, the number of claimants and the expenditure on severely disabled people with greatest needs at present; and what they were in April 1997 and March 1998; [54599]
746W
Benefit accuracy achievements and targets Percentages 1 1 April 1997–30 April 1997 1 April 1997–31 March 1998 1 April 1998–30 June 1998 Benefit Achievement Target Achievement Target Achievement Target Jobseeker's Allowance 87.1 87 85.11 87 91.0 87 Income Support 80.81 87 81.65 87 83.57 87 Disability Living Allowance 97.81 96 97.10 96 97.66 96 Attendance Allowance 98.25 96 98.41 96 97.44 96 Child Benefit 99 98 98.2 98 98.3 98 Guardian's Allowance 99 98 98.2 98 99.7 98 (16) pursuant to the Green Paper page 84, Cm 3805, New Ambitions for Our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, what is the level of support from the tax and benefit systems going to families with children at present; and what it was in April 1997 and March 1998; [54597]
(17) pursuant to the Green Paper, page 84, Cm 3805, New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, what assessment he has made of the public service ethos and level of job satisfaction and achievement among those working in welfare services at present and as at April 1997 and March 1998; [54585]
(18) pursuant to the Green Paper page 83, Cm 3805, New Ambitions for Our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, what assessment he has made of the extent of discrimination against disabled people at present, and as at April 1997 and March 1998; [54601]
(19) pursuant to the Green Paper Cm 3805, New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, (p84) what is the level of truancy and school exclusion at present; and what it was in April 1997 and March 1998; [54593]
(20) pursuant to the Green Paper Cm. 3805, New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, what definition of people of working age out of work for more than two years underlies his target; and on that definition, what are his estimates for (a) the present, (b) April 1997 and (c) March 1998; [54635]
(21) pursuant to the Green Paper Cm. 3805, New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, what definition of working age people in work underlies his target; and on this definition, what are the numbers of such people at present; and what they were in April 1997 and March 1998. [54636]
§ Mr. DenhamThe success measures which are the subject of these questions were proposed in the Green Paper on welfare reform, "New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare". They form part of the consultation exercise on the Green Paper which does not end until 31 July. We will make further announcements in due course.
§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to the Green Paper Cm 3805, New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, (p84) what is the number of incorrect benefit payments, at present; and what it was in April 1997 and March 1998. [54588]
§ Mr. DenhamInformation is not available in the format requested. Accurate payment of benefit is of key importance to the Department. Such information as is available, which relates to the accuracy achievements/targets is in the table.
747W
Benefit accuracy achievements and targets Percentages 1 1 April 1997–30 April 1997 1 April 1997–31 March 1998 1 April 1998–30 June 1998 Benefit Achievement Target Achievement Target Achievement Target Family Credit 94.7 91 92.6 91 94.9 91 Disability Working Allowance 95 95 92.3 95 91.6 94 Invalid Care Allowance 94 95 96 95 97.36 95 Incapacity benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance and Maternity Allowance 90.41 94 91.66 94 94.76 94 Retirement Pension and Widows Benefits 93.28 98 94.68 98 95.5 96 War Pensions 98.11 95 96.16 95 89.91 290 1 Figures for Jobseeker's Allowance, Child Benefit and Guardian's Allowance represents achievement to 1 April 1996–31 March 1997 2 The checking criteria for 1998–99 were widened to include lay and medical adjudication as well as action taken to implement payments Notes:
1. The Department does not collate information relating to the accuracy of Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit2. Accuracy levels of Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance, Incapacity benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, Maternity Allowance, Retirement Pensions and Widows Benefits are based on a statistically valid sample selected at random and changes of circumstance in a relevant period. This methodology has been approved by the National Audit Office. The samples are sufficiently large for the results at a national level to be within a margin of error of less than 0.25 per cent.
§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to the Green Paper page 84, Cm 3805, New Ambitions for Our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, what is the proportion of parents meeting their financial obligations to their children after separation at present; and what it was in April 1997 and March 1998. [54595]
§ Mr. DenhamThe information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is set out in the table.
Percentage of non-resident parents with a full maintenance assessment and paying through the Child Support Agency collection service Percentage Fully compliant Partially compliant May 1997 31.3 36.1 February 1998 41 28.7 Note:
1. These figures do not include non-resident parents with interim maintenance assessments or those who have been assessed to pay nothing
2. In addition, 19 per cent. of non-resident parents with full maintenance assessments at May 1997, and 17 per cent at February 1998, were paying maintenance directly to the parent with care.
Source:
Child Support Agency Quarterly Summary of Statistics
§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to the Green Paper Cm 3805, New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, (p84) what is the amount of money lost in fraudulent payments at present, and what it was in April 1997 and March 1998. [54589]
§ Mr. DenhamThe information is not available. Since fraud involves deception, it is not possible to state with great precision the amount lost through benefit fraud or to provide meaningful estimates for losses at particular points in time.
In the Green Paper "Beating Fraud is Everyone's Business: Securing the Future", we have said that, on a conservative estimate, fraud costs some £2 billion a year but that, if all suspected fraud is included in the estimate, losses could be up to around £7 billion. This is based on the results of a number of studies in which samples of 748W cases were investigated. A key element of our new anti-fraud strategy is the development of better measures of the amount of losses from fraud, and the savings which flow from particular preventive and detective activities. This will, over time, allow us to refine our estimates of losses and savings as well as to direct anti-fraud resources to where they are most effective.
§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to the Green Paper, Cm 3805, New Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare, page 83, what are(a) the level of literacy and numeracy skills among 11 year olds, and (b) the number of school leavers with no recognised qualifications at present; and what each was in April 1997 and March 1998. [54604]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisI will write to the hon. Member as soon as possible.