Asked by: Fiona O'Donnell (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many benefit payments of each type were paid into Post Office card accounts in each of the last five years; and what proportion of such recipients were (a) of working age and (b) retired.
Answered by Steve Webb
Please find below details of the volume of payments, by benefit, paid into Post Office card accounts in each of the last five contract years from October 2009, the start of the current Post Office card contract. As at September 2014 the proportion of POca working age customers is 41.66% and retirement customers 58.34%.
Benefit type | Oct '09 to Mar '10 | Apr '10 to Mar '11 | Apr '11 to Mar '12 | Apr '12 to Mar '13 | Apr '13 to Mar '14 | Apr '14 to Sept '14 |
Attendance Allowance | 1,282,073 | 2,646,196 | 2,980,275 | 3,166,677 | 3,116,840 | 1,538,852 |
Child Support (DC) Client Fund | 2,079 | 5,608 | 9,178 | 9,689 | 7,938 | 285 |
CMEC |
|
|
|
| 1,197 | 3670 |
CSA DWP Payments - CSA DWP | 284,118 | 557,228 | 648,147 | 626,507 | 584,705 | 268,170 |
Dfee Employment Services | 79,971 | 214,855 | 59,427 |
|
|
|
Disability Living Allowance | 4,090,836 | 7,931,027 | 7,678,957 | 7,488,219 | 7,179,077 | 3,386,779 |
DWP Local Payment | 83,618 | 149,836 | 128,871 | 145,018 | 186,974 | 75,160 |
DWP Universal Credit |
|
|
|
| 334 | 634 |
Incapacity Benefit | 3,956,020 | 6,640,787 | 5,369,680 | 3,703,178 | 1,745,634 | 444,821 |
Income Support | 32,694,702 | 57,496,385 | 48,077,834 | 42,369,841 | 35,144,716 | 15,612,744 |
Industrial Injuries | 1,823,692 | 3,499,816 | 3,304,669 | 3,108,446 | 2,923,184 | 1,391,414 |
Invalid Care Allowance | 2,010,877 | 3,886,243 | 3,685,821 | 3,591,341 | 3,390,941 | 1,642,035 |
Jobseekers Allowance | 2,126,450 | 3,952,375 | 4,039,600 | 3,986,790 | 3,154,319 | 1,177,786 |
Personal Independence Payment |
|
|
|
| 15,579 | 53,193 |
Resource Management | 141,271 | 268,619 | 206,031 | 145,249 | 105,362 | 15,817 |
Retirement Pensions | 41,051,123 | 77,838,703 | 72,231,420 | 69,904,004 | 64,327,423 | 30,210,680 |
Social Fund | 161,723 | 263,709 | 246,262 | 270,296 | 219,543 | 91,450 |
Employment & Support Allowance | 339,047 | 1,380,741 | 2,286,925 | 5,264,219 | 7,812,066 | 4,358,635 |
Winter Fuel Payments DWP |
|
| 888,462 | 382 | 380 | 28 |
Asked by: Fiona O'Donnell (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost is to the Government for each transaction for (a) pension payments and (b) benefit payments paid into a (i) Post Office card account, (ii) bank account and (iii) simple payment scheme.
Answered by Steve Webb
The cost to Government for making payments into a Post Office Card Account are £0.50, into a bank account £0.04497 and by Simple Payment £3.60. These costs are applicable to both pension and benefit payments.
Asked by: Fiona O'Donnell (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to ensure a comprehensive arms and ammunition embargo is imposed on all parties in South Sudan.
Answered by Lord Swire
An EU arms embargo is already in place in South Sudan. This is supported by a targeted EU sanctions regime of restrictive measures against specific individuals, adopted in July 2014 with strong UK support. We also believe that discussions on the content of a potential UN Security Council sanctions resolution should begin in New York soon and we are engaging closely with key partners to that end.
Asked by: Fiona O'Donnell (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Post Office card accounts have been (a) opened and (b) closed in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Steve Webb
Details of the number of Post Office card accounts opened and closed in each of the last 10 years are below:
| Opened | Closed |
Oct 04 -Mar 05 | 1,154,012 | 38,303 |
Apr 05- Mar 06 | 176,180 | 348,291 |
Apr 06- Mar 07 | 148,422 | 320,478 |
Apr 07 - Mar 08 | 132,322 | 320,922 |
Apr 08 -Mar 09 | 153,431 | 341,879 |
Apr 09 - Sept 09 | 77,677 | 168,861 |
Oct 09 - Mar 10 | 78,692 | 256,177 |
Apr 10 - Mar 11 | 109,573 | 465,574 |
Apr 11 -Mar 12 | 102,683 | 315,729 |
Apr 12- Mar13 | 104,145 | 302,692 |
Apr 13 -Mar 14 | 50,764 | 298,230 |
Apr 14- Sept 14 | 17,995 | 148,520 |
Asked by: Fiona O'Donnell (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Post Office card account holders there are in the UK (a) in total and (b) by age profile, broken down by (i) constituent part of the UK and (ii) by parliamentary constituency.
Answered by Steve Webb
The latest figures are:
a) There are 2,856386 Post office card account customers in total.
b) The information is not available in the format requested.
Information for Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Department for Social Development. Northern Ireland statistics can be found at:
http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/stats_and_research/benefit_publications.htm
Asked by: Fiona O'Donnell (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Post Office card account holders there are who also hold another bank account in the UK, broken down by (a) age profile, (b) constituent part of the UK and (c) parliamentary constituency.
Answered by Steve Webb
Customers using the Post Office card account as a method of payment to receive their benefit or pensions are not obliged to inform the Department that they hold another bank account. For this reason, the information requested is not available.
Asked by: Fiona O'Donnell (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the sum of withdrawals from Post Office card accounts has been in each of the last five years from (a) ATMs and (b) Post Office counters.
Answered by Steve Webb
The sum of withdrawals from Post Office card accounts using either counter services or ATM in each of the last five years is detailed below:
| ATM Withdrawals | Counter Withdrawals | |
| 2009/10 | No ATM service | 84,591,882 |
| 2010/11 | No ATM service | 157,136,419 |
| 2011/12 | 4,871,428 | 144,266,088 |
| 2012/13 | 16,643,172 | 133,030,619 |
| 2013/14 | 17,654,482 | 121,115,527 |
| 2014/15 | 932,543 | 56,190,911 |
Asked by: Fiona O'Donnell (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many balance checks for Post Office card accounts were undertaken in each of the last five years at (a) ATMs and (b) Post Office counters.
Answered by Steve Webb
Balance enquiry figures for Post Office card accounts in the last five years are:
ATM Balance Enquiry's | Counter Balance Enquiry's | |
2009/10 | No ATM service | 1,130,724 |
2010/11 | No ATM service | 12,721,201 |
2011/12 | 4,467,817 | 11,471,310 |
2012/13 | 15,427,714 | 11,095,061 |
2013/14 | 15,994,130 | 9,897,175 |
2014/15 | 8,253,153 | 4,569,642 |
Asked by: Fiona O'Donnell (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what research his Department has undertaken in the last 10 years to examine the needs of Post Office card account holders; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Webb
DWP has not commissioned any research within the last 10 years. However, DWP has worked closely with Post Office Limited implementing service improvements to address changing customer needs. In addition to this, we are currently undertaking small-scale qualitative customer insight sessions to further understand the needs of Universal Credit customers.
Asked by: Fiona O'Donnell (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what her policy is on advising other countries on the use of private finance initiative-type financing models to low-income countries either directly or through the International Finance Corporation.
Answered by Justine Greening
DFID does not have a policy either directly or indirectly of advising countries on the use of private finance initiative-type financing models.