§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if the distinction between working and retirement ages constitutes the watershed between the respectivee responsibilities of the new Jobcentre Plus and Pensions Agency services; and what arrangements are being made to ensure that officers of either agency can handle client queries which do not fully match the division of administrative responsibilities. [44265]
§ Mr. Nicholas Brown[holding answer 20 March 2002]: The Pension Service and Jobcentre Plus will operate within a single Department.
The Pension Service will offer an improved service for pensioners. It will be customer focused and will give pensioners a modern, personalised, efficient service designed to meet their needs. It will also provide information for future pensioners to help them make decisions about their future pension arrangements.
Jobcentre Plus will provide work-focused benefit and other services to people of working age, and services such as New Deal 50 plus to people above retirement age who are looking for work.
Arrangements will be in place between the agencies to cover specific cross-cutting issues, such as access to the social fund by people above retirement age, and access to the minimum income guarantee by men aged between 60 and 64. To ensure that levels of service are maintained, officials will be provided with contact details across both agencies, and in the Department's other businesses, to ensure that customers are dealing with the right part of the Department for the service they require regardless of the route by which they first approached it.