Asked by: Ian Swales (Liberal Democrat - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department spent on bank transfer transactions for each type of benefit and pension payment in the last financial year; and what the total cost was of those transfers.
Answered by Steve Webb
DWP can provide a total figure for UK benefit bank transfers for 2013/14 (including pensions) by BACS, broken down by benefit as follows:
Benefit
| Volume | Banking Costs |
ATTENDANCE ALLOWANCE (AA) (inc Overseas) | 14,914,870 | £65,625.43 |
DISABILITY LIVING ALLOWANCE (DLA) (inc Overseas) | 47,522,463 | £209,098.84 |
EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND (ESF) | 288 | £1.27 |
CARERS ALLOWANCE (CA) (inc Overseas) | 27,066,880 | £119,094.27 |
INCAPACITY BENEFIT (INCAP) | 10,093,974 | £44,413.49 |
INCOME SUPPORT (IS) | 146,845,498 | £646,120.19 |
INDUSTRIAL INJURIES (IIDB) | 11,975,719 | £52,693.16 |
OVERSEAS DIVISION (ODIIDB) | 73,828 | £324.84 |
JSA | 30,546,139 | £134,403.01 |
MORTGAGE DIRECT (JSA MD) | 239,080 | £1,051.95 |
LPS | 71,171 | £313.15 |
LPS MID | 1,900 | £8.36 |
MORTGAGE DIRECT (MI) | 1,299,364 | £5,717.20 |
RETIREMENT PENSIONS | 339,855,838 | £1,495,365.69 |
THIRD PARTY PAYMENTS (TPP) | 44,715 | £196.75 |
WINTER FUEL NEW RULE (WFNR) | 953,886 | £4,197.10 |
SOCIAL FUND (SF) | 1,157,008 | £5,090.84 |
DWP ESA MID | 617,369 | £2,716.42 |
DWP ESA | 44,349,674 | £195,138.57 |
DWP CPS LOCAL PAYMENTS | 1,930,311 | £8,493.37 |
PIP | 282,631 | £1,243.58 |
Universal Credit | 13,556 | £59.65 |
Benefits Total | 679,559,975 | £2,990,063.89 |
Excluding CSA/SPVA/CMS | 686,118,046 | £3,018,919.40 |
TOTAL BACS
| 699,386,621 | £3,077,301.13 |
The Department does not have the breakdown for Faster Payments by benefit type, however the total volume figure of payments is 3,261,640 and a transaction value of £526,273.