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24 May 2004 : Column 1461W—continued

Travellers

Andrew Selous: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many visits income tax and VAT inspectors have made to unauthorised traveller
 
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developments to ensure the proper collection of income tax and VAT in the year to 5 April 2004 in (a) England and Wales and (b) South Bedfordshire. [171777]

John Healey: Both HM Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue are committed to treating all taxpayers fairly and equally and do not target or classify businesses by demographic or racial group. An approach to managing non-compliance is taken which deploys resources on the basis of risk assessment. It is not therefore possible to quantify the number of visits made to unauthorised traveller developments.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Child Poverty

Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the Government's aim to eradicate child poverty in this country by 2020. [172912]

Mr. Pond: I refer the hon. Member to the oral answer given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to   my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Redcar   (Vera Baird) on 26 April 2004, Official Report, column 625–26.

Phil Sawford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions using the 1999 Millennium Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey, how many children he estimates lived in families with below 70 per cent. of the before housing costs national median income who also lacked (a) one or more and (b) two or more of the necessities proposed in the annex of the document Measuring Child Poverty; and how many of those categorised as missing out on (i) one or more and (ii) two or more of the list of necessities did not have before housing cost incomes below 60 per cent. of median income in 1999. [173450]

Mr. Pond: We have not made any estimates using the 1999 Millennium Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey.

The official Government estimates of low income are derived from the Family Resources Survey-based Households Below Average Income dataset. Data for the material deprivation element of the measure outlined in the document Measuring Child Poverty will be collected on the Family Resources Survey from 2004–05, and will be published in 2006.

Copies of the 'Measuring Child Poverty' document are available in the Library.

Council Tax Benefit (Hampshire)

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have claimed council tax benefit in (a) Portsmouth, (b) Southampton and (c) the rest of Hampshire in each of the last three years. [174195]

Mr. Pond: The information is in the table.
 
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Council tax benefit recipients in Portsmouth, Southampton, and Hampshire local authorities Thousand

	Council tax benefit recipients
Local authority	August 2001	August 2002	August 2003
Portsmouth	14.2	12.8	13.8
Southampton	17.9	18.0	17.3
Basingstoke and Deane	6.3	6.5	6.6
East Hampshire	4.1	4.1	4.2
Eastleigh	4.7	4.8	4.9
Fareham	3.7	3.7	3.6
Gosport	4.7	4.4	4.7
Hart	2.0	1.9	2.1
Havant	8.7	8.0	8.2
New Forest	8.9	8.5	8.5
Rushmoor	3.5	3.4	3.7
Test Valley	4.3	4.3	4.5
Winchester	4.5	4.3	4.4

Notes:
1. The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple.
2. The figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred and expressed in thousands.
3. Figures for any non-responding authorities have been estimated.
4. Council tax benefit totals exclude any Second Adult Rebate cases.
5. Totals may not sum due to rounding.
Source:
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System Quarterly 100 per cent. caseload stock-count taken in August 2001, 2002 and 2003.

National Insurance

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many national insurance numbers have been issued in each year since 1992. [172917]

Mr. Pond: The number of National Insurance Numbers (NINOs) created each year since 1992 on the Departmental Central Index (DCI) is in the table.

Year January to December	NINOs created on DCI
1992	9,765,000
1993	3,292,000
1994	1,057,000
1995	1,008,000
1996	979,000
1997	1,018,000
1998	1,027,000
1999	1,023,000
2000	996,000
2001	928,000
2002	1,082,000
2003	1,142,000

Advertising and Publicity

Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the expenditure of his Department on advertising and publicity was in each of the last six years, broken down by campaign; and what the projected expenditure is for 2003–04. [152855]

 
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Maria Eagle: 2003–04 was a major year for advertising and publicity in the Department for Work and Pensions, with a number of big campaigns rising to a peak of activity.

During 2003–04, estimated expenditure on alerting people to their rights, responsibilities and entitlements through information campaigns was £58,179,000. Of this sum, an estimated £40,894,000 was spent on advertising using television, radio, cinema, internet and press media.

Some campaigns, such as pension credit and new deal, have expenditure falling into more than one financial year, depending on requirements and final billing dates. Estimated total expenditure for 2003–04, broken down by campaign, is in the table.
£

2003–04 campaign	Advertising expenditure	Total publicity expenditure(105)
Future Pensioners/Informed Choice	—	2,700,000
Pensioners' Guide	—	1,250,000
Pension Credit	11,100,000	15,580,000
The Pension Service	570,000	2,650,000
Direct Payment	11,044,000	12,474,000
Direct Payment road show	51,000	480,000
Fraud	8,383,000	9,362,000
Winter Fuel	637,000	938,000
Council Tax Benefit	500,000	652,000
New Deal	5,800,000	7,600,000
Jobcentre Plus awareness	—	531,000
Jobseeker Direct help-line	1,700,000	1,700,000
Jobcentre Plus employer marketing	1,016,000	1,016,000
Age Positive	46,000	946,000
DDA Awareness and Disability Rights	47,000	300,000
Total	40,894,000	58,179,000

⁽¹⁰⁵⁾ The total publicity expenditure column includes the advertising costs shown in the centre column. Final expenditure April 2003– March 2004 may differ from these figures depending on actual activity and billing dates.
Notes:
1. All costs exclude VAT.
2. Figures have been rounded to the nearest £1,000
3. Advertising costs are total media costs excluding all production costs.
4. Information campaigns costing under £250,000 and the details of highly localised publicity activity by the Department's customer-facing businesses have generally not been included as a disproportionate cost would be incurred in compiling these figures.

The Department for Work and Pensions was formed in June 2001. I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 27 January 2004, Official Report, column 342W, detailing expenditure for 2001–02 and 2002–03. Information on total advertising and publicity costs by campaign for these years can be found in the Department's annual reports, copies of which are in the Library.

A more detailed breakdown, distinguishing between advertising and other publicity costs, could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Benefits

John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners in Scotland were in receipt of (a) housing benefit and (b) council tax benefit in (i) 2000–01 and (ii) 2001–02. [174022]

 
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Mr. Pond: The available information is in the table.
Housing benefit and council tax benefit recipients aged 60 and over in Scotland

As at May	Housing benefit	Council tax benefit
2000	203,000	275,000
2001	203,000	281,000

Notes:
1. The figures are based on a 1 per cent. sample and are therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation.
2. The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple.
3. The figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand.
4. Council tax benefit totals exclude any Second Adult Rebate cases.
5. Housing benefit figures exclude any Extended Payment cases.
6. "Aged 60 and over" refers to cases where the claimant and/or partner are aged 60 or over.
Source:
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System, Annual 1 per cent. sample, taken in May 2000 and 2001.

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) state pensioners and (b) non-pensioner benefit recipients within the Tamworth constituency receive (i) pensions and (ii) other benefits (A) through an order book, (B) through a Post Office Card Account and (C) paid directly into a bank or building society account. [160057]

Mr. Pond: Information in the following table gives the number of customers in the Tamworth constituency, by benefit, broken down by their method of payment (order book, Post Office Card Account or direct payment) as at 23 January 2004. Child benefit and war pensions information is not included as these are the responsibility of the Inland Revenue and Ministry of Defence respectively.

	Payment by order book	Payment by Post Office card account	Payment direct into a bank or building society account
(a) State pensioners (women over 60 and men over 65)
State pension (retirement pension)	5,235	250	6,720
Other benefits(106)	2,835	(1)	1,850
(b) Non-pensioner benefit recipients
Total of benefits	3,700	455	5,415

⁽¹⁰⁶⁾ Other benefits are attendance allowance, disability living allowance, incapacity benefit, carers' allowance, industrial injuries, pensions credit, severe disablement allowance and widows' benefit.
Notes:
The following special points should be noted :
1. For confidentiality reasons, all figures are rounded to the nearest 50.
2. 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.
3. Payments made into some bank/building society accounts will still allow customers to access their cash at Post Office branches if the account provider has an arrangement with Post Office Limited.
4. Benefits are bereavement benefit, disability living allowance, incapacity benefit, carers' allowance, industrial injuries, income support, jobseekers allowance, pension credit, severe disablement allowance and widows' benefit.
Source:
DWP Information Centre, Information & Analysis Directorate (100 per cent. data).




 
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Martin Linton: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners in Battersea are receiving at least one benefit that can be collected at the post office. [168855]

Mr. Pond: Based on information available at 21 February 2004, the number of pensioners in Battersea receiving at least one benefit that can be collected at the post office is 5,555.

This figure includes payments made into post office card accounts. It also includes girocheques, which are encashable at either a post office or through a bank or building society account.

There are no data available on the number of benefit payments collected at post offices through the wider range of banking services now available.

This figure does not include child benefit or war pensions accounts, as these are the responsibility of   Inland Revenue and the Ministry of Defence respectively.

Mrs. Humble: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the measures introduced to improve the working conditions of disabled workers in Blackpool, North and Fleetwood over the last seven years. [175892]

Maria Eagle: We have a number of measures in place nationally to help improve conditions for disabled people at work, as well as measures to improve their access to services generally. None of these are specific to Blackpool, North and Fleetwood, but all are available to disabled people who live and work there.

From 1996, the employment provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act required most employers of 20 or more staff not to discriminate against, and to   make reasonable adjustments for, disabled job applicants or employees; in December 1998, we reduced this threshold to 15 employees. From October this year, the small employer exemption will be removed and most currently excluded occupations, such as police officers, fire-fighters, and partners in business partnerships will   be brought within the scope of the Disability Discrimination Act employment provisions.

Jobcentre Plus runs a number of specialist programmes providing help for disabled people, including New Deal for Disabled People, WORKSTEP, Access to Work, the Job Introduction Scheme, and Work Preparation. All these programmes provide practical advice and support to disabled people and their employers to help overcome work related obstacles resulting from disability. Since 1997–98 there have been year on year increases in both numbers helped and programme spend.

To help people access appropriate help, Jobcentre Plus has established a network of disability service teams. The teams are made up of disability employment
 
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advisers, access to work advisers and occupational psychologists; their services are accessed through local Jobcentres.

Since April 2003, disabled people in work have been receiving financial support through the working tax credit. This is available if a person is working an average of at least 16 hours per week (self-employed or for an employer); and have a disability which puts them at a disadvantage in getting a job. 70,000 families (including over 32,000 adults without children) are benefiting from the disability element within the working tax credit, compared to 38,000 who benefited from the old disabled person's tax credit.

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners in the Havant constituency have migrated from over the counter benefit payments to automated credit transfer in each of the last 12 months. [167330]

Mr. Pond: The number of pensioner accounts (men   over 65 women over 60) in the parliamentary constituency of Havant that have migrated from over the counter benefit payments to Direct Payment in the past 12 months is in the table.

Figures refer to accounts migrating. An individual pensioner paid two benefits separately will be counted as two pensioner accounts.

Statistics are taken from individual scans of benefit databases at a point in time each month. New accounts opened and closed in between scans are not included in the figures. Similarly, if a person changes their method of payment and then reverts back to the old method of payment this change will not be included.

Time period	Number of accounts migrating
24 January 2004 to 21 February 2004	285
27 December 2003 to 24 January 2004	305
29 November 2003 to 27December 2003	35
1 November 2003 to 29 November 2003	170
4 October 2003 to 1 November 2003	225
6 September 2003 to 4 October 2003	20
9 August 2003 to 6 September 2003	120
12 July 2003 to 9August 2003	70
14 June 2003 to 12 July 2003	20
17 May 2003 to 14 Jun 2003	65
19 April 2003 to 17 May 2003	45
22 March 2003 to 19 April 2003	5
22 February 2003 to 22 March 2003	30
25 January 2003 to 22 February 2003	40
28 December 2002 to 25 January 2003	5

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