Lord Freud: In August 2011 the Deputy Prime Minister announced the Government's intention to bring forward the entry point to the Work Programme for prison leavers from March 2012, allowing access immediately on release from custody, for those claiming jobseeker's allowance. This policy change facilitates and promotes additional employment support for prison leavers claiming jobseeker's allowance through...
Lord Freud: ...38 million to fund a new credit union expansion project and that the Government will be consulting on credit union interest rates, as recommended in the credit union feasibility study published on 10 May.
Lord Freud: My Lords, we have a procurement function going on with the credit unions, which will start shortly, in terms of how they can modernise and improve. It may well be that there are contributions that are not financial but intellectual that the credit unions can add. We are currently having a series of working parties with the retail banks as we develop the requirements for universal credit and...
Lord Freud: My Lords, the whole point of this exercise is to expedite the growth of the movement. There are currently 1 million members of credit unions. The target that we have set is to double that within five to seven years and to make credit unions self-sustaining, which they currently are not.
Lord Freud: My Lords, we have to build an industry that is self-sustaining. That is the vital priority. It is no good piling money into an industry that cannot effectively absorb it. It is vital that we get this right, and this expansion project is the right way to go.
Lord Freud: My Lords, that is something that we need to look at closely. One of the things that we are doing in the housing demonstration projects is tying the credit unions into the direct payment structure, and that has been very helpful. As we build out that system, the role of credit unions can be used and advertised in that way. As for the £38 million, that is for the credit unions themselves to...
Lord Freud: My Lords, something over 10% of members of credit unions are youngsters-over 100,000. That is useful and valuable for youngsters. However, I emphasise that what we are looking at now is trying to build an industry that can sustain itself. That must take priority, and that is what the money is for.
Lord Freud: My Lords, what we are looking for in the bids is substantial change. Smaller credit unions can take part in those bids in combination with groups of credit unions. In fact, we are expecting consortia to form to use this money most effectively.
Lord Freud: Our informal consultation on accounting for the effects of cancer treatment in the work capability assessment (WCA) closed earlier this year. Having now analysed the responses received, we are currently working through the detail of our proposals. Until we have done so it would be inappropriate to make comment on any changes to the WCA. We will publish a consultation response later this...
Lord Freud: The information requested is not available.
Lord Freud: The word "claimants" more accurately describes how certain categories of service users interact with the Department for Work and Pensions. It is for individual departments and agencies to make decisions about their service users.
Lord Freud: Universal credit (UC) is being designed as a predominantly online service. This approach is in line with the Government's digital by default objectives. Documents will still need to be verified as part of the claims process. Risk tools will allow us to target verification activity where it is most needed depending on the claimant and/or the type of transaction they are undertaking. The risk...
Lord Freud: The issues raised are complex, and to ensure we get this right we have been working intensely with stakeholders, including the insurance industry, over the past 18 months to find a solution to the problem. We hope to provide an update on progress before the Summer Recess.
Lord Freud: ...systems. It replaces quarterly aggregate clerical returns. The data are available monthly from November 2008 and March 2012 is the most recent available. 5. Caseloads are rounded to the nearest 10. 6. Age groups are based on the age on the count date (second Thursday in the month), of either: (a) the recipient if they are single, or (b) the elder of the recipient or partner if claiming as...
Lord Freud: No information is available on the amount of claims that are temporarily uprated.
Lord Freud: There are no plans to collect additional statistical information on pensioners receiving a temporary up-rate of pension during short visits to GB. To establish a system for collecting such information would be disproportionately costly.
Lord Freud: No information is available on claims that are temporarily uprated.
Lord Freud: There are no plans to record this information.
Lord Freud: There are no plans to record this information.
Lord Freud: ...characteristics: age; gender; country of residence; category and value of the pension in payment. This statistical information can be accessed on the department's website at: http://83.244.183.180/100pc/sp/tabtool_sp.html. Guidance for users is available at: http://83.244.183.180/ flows/flows_off/Guidance%20for%20Users.pdf.