§ Mrs. Helen Clark:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will assess the (a) nature and (b) quality of the advice issued by his Department under the Payment Modernisation Project. [143206]
§ Mr. Pond:The Department's information campaign, to support the move to Direct Payment, provides customers with factual information on the banking options available to them, including information on the Post Office card account.
This information campaign has been produced in consultation with the Post Office and a range of other stakeholders.
Customer information material is tested on groups of customers before it is issued. This helps to ensure that customers are supplied with all the information they need to choose the account option that is right for them and that they can understand that information.
The Department will continue to monitor and evaluate the quality and effectiveness of its customer information material and will make further changes if necessary. Our own internal monitoring suggests that 685W our information material is working well and customers are choosing from all of the account options available to them.
§ Mrs. Helen Clark:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many customers have made (a) enquiries about the Post Office card account, (b) received invitations to open an account as a result and (c) opened such an account. [143207]
§ Mr. Pond:Key figures on the progress of conversion to Direct Payment are available in the Library, updated every four weeks. Information regarding the number of Post Office card accounts opened is a matter that falls within the responsibilities of Post Office Ltd. (POL).
§ Mr. Lilley:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much benefit he estimates was
Percentage Benefit North East North West Yorkshire and Humberside East Midlands West Midlands East of England Attendance Allowance (AA) 37.97 30.59 32.31 32.80 36.62 28.67 Bereavement Benefit (BB) 33.59 31.18 30.43 23.40 28.32 18.35 Disability Living Allowance (DLA) 57.81 53.28 53.00 50.01 53.99 44.45 Incapacity Benefit (IB) 63.01 58.35 55.90 52.25 53.86 47.40 Carer's Allowance (CA) 79.77 75.62 75.45 71.61 74.65 66.44 Industrial Injuries (II) 63.77 62.08 69.76 64.19 67.32 65.72 Income Support (IS) 76.14 71.60 71.82 68.47 70.56 64.70 Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Pension Credit (PC) 79.06 75.67 76.37 73.54 77.27 70.80 State Pension (SP) 56.60 50.16 50.87 47.50 48.38 39.23 Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA) 67.33 64.33 64.37 61.05 62.59 54.76 Widows Benefit (WB) 59.62 54.15 53.32 48.09 51.70 41.06 Total for All Benefits 60.37 55.33 55.18 51.56 53.59 44.63
Percentage Benefit London South East South West Wales Scotland Attendance Allowance (AA) 36.98 27.68 30.29 37.28 37.45 Bereavement Benefit (BB) 26.78 17.44 20.63 33.39 30.96 Disability Living Allowance (DLA) 48.13 42.88 45.57 55.89 54.50 Incapacity Benefit (IB) 53.87 47.44 48.15 61.86 62.36 Carer's Allowance (CA) 71.06 65.65 66.51 76.11 76.07 Industrial Injuries (II) 56.11 50.71 64.47 77.82 69.45 Income Support (IS) 68.52 63.07 64.16 73.80 71.40 Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Pension Credit (PC) 70.75 66.32 79.27 77.30 State Pension (SP) 38.23 35.21 41.41 59.43 48.97 Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA) 60.22 53.43 56.84 68.51 61.57 Widows Benefit (WB) 46.70 37.75 42.34 59.34 55.27 Total for All Benefits 46.96 40.89 46.14 61.10 55.27 Notes:
1. Figures relate to payload and not caseload therefore if a claimant is receiving more than one benefit e.g. Pension Credit (PC) and State Pension (SP) but only receives one combined payment through the PC system they will only be shown as having a Pension Credit account and not a State Pension account.
2. Figures quoted are for GB only.
§ Mrs. Helen Clark:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the evidential basis is for the claim in his Department's internal memorandum from the Project Manager for the Payment Modernisation Programme, that paying pensions through Post Office accounts costs 30 times as much as through bank accounts. [143202]
§ Mr. Pond:The internal memorandum states costs are at least 30 times more for making payments into a Post Office card account than into a bank account. This 686W fraudulently claimed by claimants using false identities in 2002–03. [140565]
§ Mr. Pond:The Cabinet Office Study on Identity Fraud published in July 2002 estimated that between £20 and £50 million annually of benefit fraud was a result of benefit claims using false identities.
This estimate remains valid.
§ Mr. Cousins:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what percentage of payments in each category of benefit were paid by order book in each region of the UK for the most recent available period. [142421]
§ Mr. Pond:The figures in the table have been compiled from data available on 1 November 2003 and show the percentage of accounts paid by Order book, broken down by benefit and Government Office Region.
statement is on the basis that, whereas the financial institutions meet the operating costs of providing their bank accounts, the Government pay additional costs to the Post Office for the provision of the Post Office card account services.
§ Mr. Cousins:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will disregard the proposed Child Trust Fund in Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit assessments for claimants over the age of 16. [144003]
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§ Mr. Pond:We are considering the precise impact on benefits; however, at present, the general principle is that no account is taken of capital held in trust funds until a young person has access to it.
We are aware of concerns about what would happen when Child Trust Funds are realised when young people reach age 18. We said in the pre-Budget report that we will keep under review the treatment of capital in income related working age benefits so that it strikes a sensible balance between providing targeted state support and not unfairly penalising those who have acted responsibly by saving.