Incapacity Care Allowance (Hansard, 5 May 2004)

§ Dr. Cable
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the incentives to work for those in receipt of incapacity care allowance and seeking part-time work with earnings over £4,000 per annum. [167177]

§ Maria Eagle
[holding answer 22 April 2004]: Since April 2000, people who participate in work trials and placements approved and arranged through Jobcentres can retain their incapacity benefits. Under the new Permitted Work rules for incapacity, benefit, introduced from April 2002, recipients can earn up to £20 a week for an unlimited period, or work for less than 16 hours a week and earn up to £72 a week for 26 weeks. This can be extended for a further 26 weeks if progress is being made towards work of 16 hours a week or more. Those doing supported permitted work can earn up to and including £72 a week for an indefinite period. This earnings limit has been increased to its current level from £48 per week in 1998 to keep pace with increases in the National Minimum Wage.
Recipients of carer's allowance are not required to be available for, and actively seeking, work as a condition of entitlement to the allowance. However, working age carers living in Jobcentre Plus areas are required to attend, where possible, a work focussed interview, and are encouraged to keep in touch wit a the labour market.
Incentives to work for carer's allowance recipients who are seeking part-time work with earnings of over £4,000 per year are provided by the earnings rule which enables them to retain the allowance if their net earnings do not exceed £79 a week after deduction of allowable expenses. These include income tax, national insurance contributions, half of their superannuation contributions and some of the cost of providing care for the disabled person the recipient cares for and/or for the recipient's children whilst the recipient is at work. The earnings limit is set at the same amount as the lower earnings limit for national insurance contributions and is increased each year.

§ Dr. Cable
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of recipients of incapacity care allowance who are(a) in employment, (b) of working age but not employed and (c) of working age, not employed hit seeking work. [167178]

§ Maria Eagle
[holding answer 22 April 2004]: Incapacity benefits provide a source of income for people of working age with health conditions or disabilities. There are around 2.7 pillion people with such conditions claiming incapacity benefit, severe disability allowance, income support or national insurance credits. More than 37,000 recipients of incapacity benefit and SDA currently do some permitted work whilst receiving the benefit. In addition, 1560W the Labour Force Survey suggests around 3 per cent. of those receiving these benefits have looked for work within the last four weeks.
As at 30 November 2003, some 32,500 recipients of carer's allowance were in employment and a further 365,000 working age recipients of the allowance were not employed. Although recipients of the allowance are not required to be available for, and actively seeking, work as a condition of entitlement to it, around 1,000 recipients were also claiming jobseeker's allowance and, hence, actively seeking work. There may be others who are actively seeking work, but do not use the services of Jobcentre Plus.

§ Dr. Cable
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many recipients of incapacity care allowance there were in each of the last five years. [167179]

§ Maria Eagle
[holding answer 22 April 2004]: The information is in the table.

Incapacity benefits and carer's allowance recipients

Incapacity benefit Thousands
Carer's allowance

1999 2,637.5 379.8

2000 2,677.9 397.6

2001 2,705.1 376.2

2002 2,710.1 402.7

2003 2,720.5 418.7

Notes:

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred and are expressed in thousands.

2. Incapacity benefit figures are based on a 5 per cent. sample taken at the end of November each year.

3. Carer's allowance figures for 1999, 2001 and 2002 are based on a 5 per cent. sample taken at the end of December each year, figures for 2000 are estimated and figures for 2003 are based on a 5 per cent. sample taken at the end of November.

4. Figures include people receiving incapacity benefit, credits only cases and people in receipt of severe disablement allowance.

Source:

DWP information centre

Incapacity benefits and carer's allowance recipients
	Incapacity benefit	Thousands Carer's allowance
1999	2,637.5	379.8
2000	2,677.9	397.6
2001	2,705.1	376.2
2002	2,710.1	402.7
2003	2,720.5	418.7
Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred and are expressed in thousands.
2. Incapacity benefit figures are based on a 5 per cent. sample taken at the end of November each year.
3. Carer's allowance figures for 1999, 2001 and 2002 are based on a 5 per cent. sample taken at the end of December each year, figures for 2000 are estimated and figures for 2003 are based on a 5 per cent. sample taken at the end of November.
4. Figures include people receiving incapacity benefit, credits only cases and people in receipt of severe disablement allowance.
Source:
DWP information centre