Written question asked by Ian Lucas (Labour) on Tuesday, 13 July 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 July 2004. It was answered by Chris Pond (Labour) on Monday, 19 July 2004 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Dept for Work and Pensions

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many benefit recipients have changed their method of payment from payment into a bank account to payment into a Post Office Card Account since the beginning of direct payment. - Inc figures and that the information is not available in the format requested.

Answer: Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many benefit recipients have changed their method of payment from payment into a bank account to payment into a Post Office card account since the beginning of direct payment. [184630] Mr. Pond: The information is not available in the format requested. Figures supplied are for benefit accounts not benefit recipients. A benefit recipient may have more than one benefit account. The Post Office card account has been available since April 2003. The number of benefit accounts that have changed from a bank account to a Post Office card account from April 2003 to May 2005 is 12,625.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 184630; 424 c80W;424 c79W
Session: 2003-04
Subjects: Bank services Payments Recipients Social security benefits Post office card account Automated credit transfer Payment methods
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk