Winter Fuel Payments (Hansard, 16 November 1998)

§ Angela Eagle

The administration of the Winter Fuel Payments scheme is a matter for Peter Mathison, Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Peter Mathison to Mr. Edward Davey, dated 12 November 1998: The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent parliamentary questions asking, in (a) each London Borough and (b) each London Parliamentary Constituency, what percentage of Winter Fuel Payment cheques issued over the winter of 1997 were returned to local Benefit Agencies (BA) and what was the national average; when is it estimated that all work on the backlog of Winter Fuel Payments will have been completed and what is the national average; how many BA staff have been working on Winter Fuel Payments relating to the winter of 1997 and what is the national average. You also asked what procedures are in place for addressing this year's round of Winter Fuel Payments and how these differ from those in force in the previous year. The making of Winter Fuel Payments to almost 10 million pensioners, in over seven million households, before the end of March 1998 was a challenging task for the BA. This was achieved whilst maintaining normal benefit business. Not all of the information requested is available. The information that is available is not in the format requested. The BA collate Winter Fuel Payments scheme statistics by BA District which do not correspond to Parliamentary Constituencies or Local Authority boundaries. It would only be possible to provide figures in those formats at disproportionate cost. I am, however, able to tell you that in excess of 9.76 million Winter Fuel Payments were issued during the 1997–98 winter. Of these payments, the national average of returned payments was less than 2.07 per cent. In excess of 9.76 million Winter Fuel Payments were made automatically by 31 March 1998. All payments were made to eligible pensioners based on official records. Whilst we have issued all payments and do not consider there to be a backlog, it is possible that a small number of pensioners have not yet been paid because the original girocheque was not cashed, or they have not yet queried their entitlement. It is not possible to estimate how many of these cases are outstanding. Local BA offices and the Winter Fuel Helpline are on hand to give advice to pensioners who feel that they are entitled to an initial or further payment. Information is not available in relation to the number of staff employed exclusively on the Winter Fuel Payments scheme as those involved were also involved in other areas of work. However, funding for the administration of last winter's scheme was allocated and distributed to each of the BA's 13 Area Directorates (ADs) and our Pensions and Overseas Directorate. These ADs do not correspond to specific Local Authority or parliamentary constituency boundaries. Three ADs cover the south east and in total they received £669,800 to administer the scheme. This would be equivalent to some 130 full time staff posts for the duration of last year's Winter Fuel Payment exercise. Nationally, ADs received £2,140,500 to administer the scheme. This would be equivalent to some 421 full time staff posts for the duration of last year's exercise. For the forthcoming winter delivery of payments will be broadly similar to last winter's exercise. Eligible pensioners in receipt of Income Support and Income Based Jobseeker's Allowance will be issued with a £50 payment by the end of November. Payments to other eligible pensioners will be made during January and will again be made automatically (a claim does not have to be made). The BA's Generalised Matching Service will be used to compare addresses in order to decide whether £10 or £20 is payable. Poste Restante arrangements whereby girocheques are issued direct to Post Offices will again be used for Retirement Pension, Graduated Retirement Benefit and Widow's Benefit Pension customers normally paid by order book. Around 5 million payments will be despatched to Post Offices over a three week period from 5 to 22 January 1999. There is no doubt that the BA has learnt from the problems experienced by some pensioners last year and having had more time to effectively plan for this winter's payments, I am confident that we will improve the administration of this winter's scheme. 402W For last winter's payments the address data held for some customers was insufficient to make matching possible. In anticipation for this winter's payments an exercise to investigate and improve this data has been carried out. The BA, wherever possible, has ensured that the majority of eligible pensioners' addresses are now compatible with Post Office address records and can more accurately be included in the automated scans used in the identification process. Technical changes to the data cleansing process should ensure that the incidents where both members of a couple who live in the same household each receive £20 will reduce. Scans based on surname, sex, postcode and date of marriage will match couples who share these details and will give a higher level of reliability this winter. Improvements to the Pensions Computer System will allow BA local office staff to automatically issue additional payments where eligible pensioners have not received their full entitlement as opposed to clerically producing the additional payments. The additional girocheques will be printed and despatched automatically from the central computer centres and therefore the payments should be received more quickly. I hope you find this reply helpful.