Asked by: Pamela Nash (Labour - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department spent on (a) recruitment agency fees, (b) outplacement agency fees for displaced or redundant staff and (c) staff training in each of the last five years.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Information requested is as follows:
a) Recruitment agency fees
£ | Spend on recruitment agency fees |
2009/10 | 457,498 |
2010/11 | 3,944 |
2011/12 | 0 |
2012/13 ¹ | 394,511 |
2013/14 ¹ | 362,616 |
¹ Includes Child Maintenance Group expenditure which joined DWP in August 2012.
Data excludes NDPBs
b) Outplacement agency fees
£ | Spend on outplacement agency fees | Outplacement support provided (heads) |
2009/10 | -¹ |
|
2010/11 | -¹ |
|
2011/12 | 32,100 | 1275 |
2012/13 ² | 16,950 | 813 |
2013/14 ² | 2,235 | 4397 |
Outplacement agency fees are for displaced or redundant staff for all grades. This includes:
i) outreach services procured directly by the department; and
ii) outplacement services procured via Civil Service Resourcing’s Outplacement Services Framework contract, which has been in place since January 2014.
It does not include Department’s in house outplacement activity or the outplacement services delivered by Civil Service Resourcing’s Career Transition Service (CTS).
¹ The spend on outplacement agency fees is not available for 2009/10 and 2010/11.
² Includes Child Maintenance Group expenditure which joined DWP in August 2012.
Data excludes NDPBs
c) Staff training costs
£ | Spend on staff training costs | Average headcount | £ per head |
2009/10 | 19,920,326 | 117,425 | 169.64 |
2010/11 | 10,219,848 | 114,449 | 89.30 |
2011/12 | 6,599,138 | 103,094 | 64.01 |
2012/13 ¹ | 8,613,543 | 98,295 | 87.63 |
2013/14 ¹ | 9,421,756 | 95,287 | 98.88 |
¹ Includes Child Maintenance Group expenditure which joined DWP in August 2012.
Data excludes NDPBs
Asked by: Pamela Nash (Labour - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much was outstanding in child maintenance arrears in each (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local authority area in each of the last four years.
Answered by Steve Webb
(a) The attached document (CM arrears by Parliamentary Constituency) provides a breakdown of outstanding child maintenance arrears on cases administered by the Child Support Agency (CSA) by parliamentary constituency, as at June 2014.
Outstanding child maintenance arrears, on cases administered by the CSA, broken down by local authority is published in the six-monthly regional tables. The latest published regional figures contain data as at June 2014 which can be found at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/347756/csa_qtr_summ_stats_regional_jun14.xls
Asked by: Pamela Nash (Labour - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what amount is outstanding in child maintenance arrears in (a) Airdrie and Shotts constituency and (b) Scotland.
Answered by Steve Webb
The table below shows the outstanding maintenance arrears for Child Support Agency (CSA) cases as at June 2014:
Airdrie and Shotts | £6,714,000 |
Scotland | £304,960,000 |
1. Figures rounded to nearest £1,000.
2. Outstanding Arrears figures are the gross arrears position at the end of each quarter sourced from the Agency’s internal MI and relate to outstanding Non-Resident Parent arrears which are then allocated to the Parliamentary Constituency of the Parent with Care. Due to the different sources, figures may differ slightly from CSA’s Annual Report and Accounts.
3. Local Authorities and Parliamentary constituencies are determined by the region/country specified on the National Statistics Postcode Directory. Due to slight differences between the areas specified for local authorities and parliamentary constituencies on CSA's management information, overall totals may differ. The sum of the total arrears for Scotland by Parliamentary Constituency differs from the sum by local authority by 0.01%.
4. We are not yet in a position to release full statistics on the 2012 Scheme, administered by the Child Maintenance Service, but when system data becomes available and fully assured they will be released as part of a managed process, which will be pre-announced and in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
Asked by: Pamela Nash (Labour - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 4 October 2013, Official Report, column 487W, how many former Remploy workers are now in employment.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
For all disabled former Remploy workers made redundant as a result of factory closures, the Government put in place the £8 million guaranteed People Help and Support Package (PHSP). The support package provides help to each affected disabled former employee for up to 18 months from the date they left Remploy.
Latest figures show that 1,245 former Remploy disabled workers (over 80 per cent) of the 1,507 people who were made redundant and had been supported by a Personal Case Worker were in work and/or had accessed Work Choice support. A total of 1058 jobs have been found for disabled former employees and 774 are currently in work.
Asked by: Pamela Nash (Labour - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what is the average time taken to process an application for funeral expenses from the Social Fund from application submission to decision in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales, (d) England, (e) Northern Ireland in each of the last four years for which figures are available.
Answered by Steve Webb
The average number of working days taken to process applications for funeral payments in England, Scotland, Wales and Great Britain are set out for each of the last four financial years in Table 1 below.
Information regarding funeral payments for Northern Ireland is a matter for the Northern Ireland office.
Table 1: Average working days taken to process applications for funeral payments in England, Scotland, Wales and Great Britain, 2010/11 to 2013/14
Financial Year | ||||
2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | |
England | 14.8 | 13.7 | 14.6 | 18.3 |
Scotland | 13.9 | 14.5 | 14.4 | 19 |
Wales | 11.6 | 12.8 | 16.9 | 19.5 |
Great Britain | 14.5 | 13.8 | 14.7 | 18.4 |
For additional context, the average monthly clearance times between April 2014 and November 2014 are given in Table 2. As these figures are based on a shorter time frame and Funeral Payment applications vary throughout the year; please note that these figures are not directly comparable to those in Table 1.
Table 2: Average number of working days taken to process applications for funeral payments in England, Scotland, Wales and Great Britain, by month, April 2014 to November 2014
Month | England | Wales | Scotland | Great Britain |
Apr-14 | 21.4 | 22.9 | 20.9 | 21.4 |
May-14 | 22.7 | 23.7 | 20.5 | 22.6 |
Jun-14 | 21.3 | 23.4 | 20.2 | 21.3 |
Jul-14 | 17.3 | 18.7 | 14.9 | 17.1 |
Aug-14 | 17.0 | 16.5 | 13.1 | 16.5 |
Sep-14 | 18.4 | 18.0 | 15.0 | 17.9 |
Oct-14 | 19.7 | 25.2 | 13.2 | 19.2 |
Nov-14 | 13.2 | 14.1 | 17.1 | 13.7 |
Apr-14 to Nov-14 | 19.0 | 20.3 | 16.9 | 18.8 |
Notes
· These figures do not include applications which were processed clerically and have not been entered on to the Social Fund Computer System.
· The clearance time for funeral payment applications is measured in whole working days from the date the application is received until the date the decision is taken.
Asked by: Pamela Nash (Labour - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many liability orders that have been issued for outstanding child maintenance arrears have led to (a) prosecutions, (b) disclosed information about the paying parent to credit reference agencies, (c) new enforcement charges being levied to non-residential parents in (i) the UK, (ii) Scotland, (iii) Wales, (iv) England, (v) Northern Ireland, (vi) each local authority area and (vii) each parliamentary constituency in each of the last four years for which records are available.
Answered by Steve Webb
(a) Information on the number of liability orders that have led to a prosecution is not routinely recorded for management information purposes and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Figures on the number of prosecutions is published in table 17 (page 44) of the latest Child Support Agency Quarterly Summary of Statistics, which contains data up to September 2014.
(b) Regulations to enable these new powers are due to be laid in Parliament in March 2015 with the intention being that they come into force by the end of the same month.
(c) Enforcement charges only relate to the 2012 Scheme, which opened to all applicants on 30 November 2013. We are not yet in a position to release full statistics on the 2012 Scheme, but when system data becomes available and fully assured they will be released as part of a managed process, which will be pre-announced and in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
Asked by: Pamela Nash (Labour - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much the Child Support Agency has collected in current maintenance and arrears in each of the last four years for which figures are available; and what the total maintenance liabilities were in each such year.
Answered by Steve Webb
The table below shows yearly figures for liability accrued and collections towards maintenance and arrears by the Child Support Agency.
Rolling 12 Months: | Liability Accrued (£m)1 | Maintenance Collected (£m) | Of which, Contribution towards Arrears (£m) |
March 20111 | - | £768.9 | £125.1 |
March 20121 | - | £790.8 | £118.4 |
March 2013 | £915.7 | £828.4 | £167.4 |
March 2014 | £942.4 | £849.0 | £155.8 |
Notes:
1. Annual liability is only available from March 2013 due to new methodology only being available from January 2012. Maintenance Collected and Contribution towards Arrears are based on old methodology for March 2011 and March 2012.
Asked by: Pamela Nash (Labour - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of paupers' funerals in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales, (d) England and (e) Northern Ireland in each of the last four years for which figures are available.
Answered by Steve Webb
My department does not collect data on the number of Local Authority funerals.
Asked by: Pamela Nash (Labour - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many liability orders for oustanding child maintenance arrears have been issued to non-resident parents in each of the last four years for which figures are available in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales, (d) England, (e) Northern Ireland, (f) each local authority area and (g) each Parliamentary constituency.
Answered by Steve Webb
Figures on the number of liability orders granted in relation to cases administered by the Child Support Agency is published in table 17 (page 44) of the latest Child Support Agency Quarterly Summary of Statistics, which contains data up to September 2014. Information on liability orders broken down by country is not routinely recorded for management information purposes and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
We are not yet in a position to release full statistics on the 2012 Scheme, administered by the Child Maintenance Service, but when system data becomes available and fully assured they will be released as part of a managed process, which will be pre-announced and in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
Asked by: Pamela Nash (Labour - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the proportion of (a) women and (b) men in (i) the UK, (ii) Scotland, (iii) England, (iv) Wales and (v) Northern Ireland aged 56 years who in each of the last four years have had no pension savings.
Answered by Steve Webb
The exact breakdowns that have been requested are not readily available.