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12 Jan 2006 : Column 813W—continued

Pathways to Work

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what cost benefit analysis has been carried out with regard to the pathways to work pilot scheme. [40756]

Margaret Hodge: The information requested is in Working Paper Incapacity Benefit Reforms—Pathways to Work Pilots performance and analysis" a copy of which has been placed in the Library.

The pathways to work districts are piloting new measures and innovative approaches to helping people with long term illnesses or a disability to return to work. As pilot schemes, they are designed to test whether alternative approaches may be more effective than existing measures.

Early results show off-flows from incapacity benefit at six months of around 48 per cent. in the pilot areas compared with around 40 per cent. nationally, an improvement of eight percentage points, resulting in a reduction in the incapacity benefit caseload which more than pays for the additional costs of the pilots.

Pension Credit

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many telephone calls to the Pension Credit Application line were (a) received,
 
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(b) answered, (c) engaged and (d) hung up on in the weeks commencing (i) 17 October, (ii) 24 October and (iii) 31 October; and if he will make a statement. [38208]

Mr. Timms: The administration of The Pension Service is a matter for the Chief Executive, Ms Alexis Cleveland. She will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Alexis Cleveland, dated 12 January 2006:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question concerning how many calls made to the Pension Credit Application line were (a) received (b) answered (c) engaged and (d) hung up on in the weeks commencing (i) 17 October (ii)24 October (iii) 31 October; and if he will make a statement. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of The Pension Service.

The table shows the information, as requested. As you are aware, the number of calls received by the Pension Credit Application Line in the weeks selected was exceptionally high as a result of a new marketing approach. Even so, in the worst affected week, we were still able to answer 65 per cent. of the calls available. In addition, we have included figures for the week commencing 12 December 2005. These are indicative of our current telephony performance (calls answered were 81 per cent. of those available).

The Pension Credit Application Line uses an automated filter, the Auto Attendant, when experiencing high volumes of calls. At times when this is required, customers who wish to make a claim for Pension Credit are advised by the Auto Attendant that they will be put through to the call queue. The automated message
 

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advises all other callers of the high call volumes and they are given the option to call again (during opening hours) or to contact their local Pension Centre, for which the correct telephone number is
 

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provided. When the auto attendant is not operating, callers receive a standard greeting message, during which they may abandon their call (for instance if they have dialled a wrong number).

	(i) Inbound calls	(ii) Receiving engaged tone	(iii) Calls available to be answered having been filtered to the queue by the auto attendant (when in use)	(iv) Of (iii), calls abandoned	(v) Of (iii) calls answered
17 October 2005	31,940	0	25,714	4,596	21,066
24 October 2005	207,346	0	53,755	18,772	34,974
31 October 2005	133,852	2	56,476	16,547	39,917
12 December 2005	30,303	0	30,303	5,831	24,467

Note:
There is discrepancy in the calls answered total due to missing calls. This arises due to a small amount of calls not registering on the IT system correctly.

I hope this information is helpful

Pensioner Benefits

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was spent (a) in cash terms, (b) at current prices and (c) as a share of gross domestic product on (i) the basic state pension, (ii) pension credit, minimum income guarantee or income support for the elderly and (iii) all pensioner benefits in each year since 1992–93; what the estimate is for each year to the end of the public expenditure planning period; and how many pensioners were in receipt of each benefit in each year. [33295]

Mr. Timms: The available information regarding the figures requested on pensions is in the table as follows.
1. Basic state pension

	£ million		Share of GDP
	Cash terms	Current prices	(percentage)
1992–93	25,364	34,806	4.1
1993–94	26,546	35,520	4.1
1994–95	26,859	35,395	3.9
1995–96	27,740	35,559	3.8
1996–97	29,239	36,201	3.8
1997–98	30,391	36,547	3.7
1998–99	31,914	37,408	3.7
1999–2000	33,378	38,369	3.6
2000–01	33,986	38,564	3.5
2001–02	36,565	40,490	3.6
2002–03	38,469	41,287	3.6
2003–04	39,828	41,641	3.6
2004–05	41,389	42,373	3.5
2005–06	43,055	43,055	3.5
2006–07	44,829	43,753	3.5
2007–08	46,966	44,652	3.4

2. Pension credit, minimum income guarantee or income support

	£ million		Share of GDP
	Cash terms	Current prices	(percentage)
1992–93	3,687	5,059	0.6
1993–94	3,894	5,210	0.6
1994–95	3,925	5,173	0.6
1995–96	3,841	4,924	0.5
1996–97	3,764	4,660	0.5
1997–98	3,721	4,475	0.5
1998–99	3,566	4,180	0.4
1999–2000	3,725	4,283	0.4
2000–01	4,035	4,578	0.4
2001–02	4,417	4,891	0.4
2002–03	4,405	4,728	0.4
2003–04	4,851	5,072	0.4
2004–05	5,997	6,140	0.5
2005–06	6,457	6,457	0.5
2006–07	7,059	6,889	0.5
2007–08	7,817	7,432	0.6

3. All pensioner benefits

	£ million		Share of GDP
	Cash terms	Current prices	(percentage)
1992–93	35,387	48,559	5.8
1993–94	37,811	50,594	5.8
1994–95	38,723	51,030	5.6
1995–96	39,919	51,170	5.5
1996–97	41,829	51,789	5.4
1997–98	43,426	52,222	5.3
1998–99	45,165	52,940	5.2
1999–2000	47,934	55,102	5.2
2000–01	50,580	57,392	5.2
2001–02	54,494	60,343	5.4
2002–03	57,437	61,644	5.4
2003–04	60,230	62,971	5.4
2004–05	64,560	66,095	5.5
2005–06	68,669	68,669	5.6
2006–07	71,400	69,686	5.5
2007–08	75,776	72,042	5.6

Notes:
1.Figures have been rounded to the nearest million pounds.
2.All figures are consistent with the pre-Budget report 2005 and are in 2005–06 prices. Figures are for GB other than the share of GDP which is a proportion of the UKGDP.
3.All pensioner benefits (table 3) includes the basic state pension (table 1) and pension credit (table 2) and the following benefits paid to pensioners: Christmas bonus-contribution based; retirement pension-non contributory; invalidity/incapacity benefit up to and including 1999–2000; widows/bereavement benefits; severe disablement allowance; winter fuel payments (from 1997–98 onwards); over- 65s payment (in 2005–06) and over-70s payment (in 2004–05 and 2005–06); over-75 TV licence (from 2000–01 onwards); housing Benefit and discretionary housing payments; community charge/council tax benefit, pensions compensation board.
Source:
Figures have been taken from the DWP Expenditure tables.





 
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Number of pensioners in receipt of benefits Caseload (thousand)

	Retirement pension contribution based	Widows/bereavement benefits	Invalidity/incapacity benefit	Incapacity benefit-credits only
1992–93	10,096	50	282	—
1993–94	10,103	51	298	—
1994–95	10,139	47	299	—
1995–96	10,261	47	279	6
1996–97	10,423	43	217	5
1997–98	10,574	36	154	4
1998–99	10,712	35	90	5
1999–2000	10,851	31	29	5
2000–01	10,931	28	—	4
2001–02	11,036	28	—	—
2002–03	11,121	28	—	—
2003–04	11,250	27	—	—
2004–05	11,529	24	—	—
2005–06	11,789	21	—	—
2006–07	12,016	19	—	—
2007–08	12,275	17	—	—

 
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Caseload (thousand)

	Retirement pension non-contributory	Severe disablement allowance	Winter fuel payments	Over 75 TV licence	Income support for people over 60/minimum income guarantee/pension credit
1992–93	29	46	—	—	1,668
1993–94	29	49	—	—	1,789
1994–95	28	49	—	—	1,776
1995–96	29	35	—	—	1,777
1996–97	27	38	—	—	1,756
1997–98	26	39	9,759	—	1,714
1998–99	25	41	9,953	—	1,651
1999–2000	24	42	10,084	—	1,628
2000–01	23	41	11,106	3,156	1,638
2001–02	24	42	11,202	3,859	1,736
2002–03	23	43	11,358	3,778	1,760
2003–04	24	43	11,486	3,838	1,977
2004–05	25	43	11,613	3,875	2,603
2005–06	26	42	11,762	3,922	2,741
2006–07	29	42	11,959	3,970	2,878
2007–08	30	41	12,254	4,014	3,076

Caseload (thousand)

	Housing benefit	Council tax benefit
1992–93	1,837	3,315
1993–94	1,914	2,719
1994–95	1,937	2,801
1995–96	1,917	2,769
1996–97	1,886	2,692
1997–98	1,844	2,623
1998–99	1,798	2,567
1999–2000	1,726	2,471
2000–01	1,664	2,387
2001–02	1,637	2,371
2002–03	1,612	2,357
2003–04	1,541	2,341
2004–05	1,554	2,467
2005–06	1,559	2,609
2006–07	1,562	2,698
2007–08	1,565	2,787

Notes.
1.Caseloads have been rounded to the nearest thousand.
2.Pension credit, minimum income guarantee or income support:
3.Numbers from 2005–06 are forecast.
4.No payments of incapacity benefit were paid to people over state pension age from 2000–01 onwards (a small number of credits only cases are in 2000–01).
5.Winter fuel payments began in 1997–98.
6.Free TV licences for the over 75s began in 2000–01.
Source:
DWP Historic and forecast caseload information.

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