In accordance with cross government arrangements; DWP reports sick leave expressed as average working days lost (AWDL) per employee per year. The following table provides AWDL data and targets for the last five performance years.

DWP has succeeded in cutting sickness absence from an annual average of 11.1 days per employee in 2007 to 7.4 days per employee currently. As a result, we are spending around £26 million per year less on sick pay and saving time which is the equivalent of employing around 1,500 extra employees.

DWP does not report an employee absence rate, in line with cross government arrangements. Leave entitlement is not recorded centrally and to calculate an employee absence rate would incur disproportionate costs.

The estimated spend on accountants by the Department for Work and Pensions for each year since 2010 is as follows:

The figures relate to the number of qualified accountants directly employed by the Department and paid against an accountancy pay scale (grades HEO to grade 6 excluding the senior civil service).

The estimated spend is the cost to the Department comprising actual base salary inclusive of superannuation and employer's national insurance contributions. The figures are based on information as at 31 March. The figures for 31 March 2013 include the Child Maintenance Group.

Accountants are 0.7% of the pay bill and 0.3% of staff in post.

The Department provides services to over 20 million customers and delivers these services from 900 buildings accommodating 100,000 staff. Since 1998 the Department's accommodation has been provided and managed by its service partner, Telereal Trillium.

In line with its current business plans, the Department is undergoing an estate rationalisation programme which by April 2013 had saved £51.8 million. To facilitate

the Department has spent £11.2 million in the last 24 months on building rationalisation and refurbishment activity.

Since 1998 the Department for Work and Pensions occupies the majority of its accommodation under a private finance initiative (PFI) known as the PRIME contract. Under the terms of this PFI the Department leases back fully serviced accommodation from its private sector partner Telereal Trillium

Therefore the Department does not own any properties under the PRIME contract.

The Department rents 85 sites which equates to 176,061m² of space across London. The vast majority of these are operational sites such as jobcentres, contact centres and processing centres.

The Valuation Office Agency 2012 valuations placed on these properties amounted to £365,371,623.

There is no such prognosis as being unable to return to work in the longer-term. However, the following table shows how many claimants have been allocated a prognosis of two years or more:

A Claimant placed in the Work Related Activity Group is considered able to undertake work related activity which may help some with progressive conditions find suitable employment. In addition, although the health of some claimants can deteriorate, others may find their function improves whilst others adapt to their condition. This could be in response to changes in treatment, rehabilitation or new treatments that become available. Appropriate review ensures that an individual continues to receive the right level of support, including being moved into the Support Group if necessary.

Between April 2012 and May 2013 there have been 2,230 work experience and 550 sector based academy starts in Birmingham. We do not have a breakdown of the number of Wage Incentive payments, or Apprentice Grant to Employers made in Birmingham since the launch of the Youth Contract. A regional breakdown of the number of Wage Incentive payments will be included in the next set of Official Statistics.

There are no forward projections on how many Wage Incentives, Apprenticeship Grants to Employers or work experience placements will be created in Birmingham up to 2015.

Jobcentre Plus signposts people to food banks only; it does not issue vouchers.

Housing benefit is a linked to job seekers allowance, and classed as an in-work benefit in EU law. EU nationals only have access to housing benefit when they have satisfied that they are habitually resident in the United Kingdom, and those without a relevant right to reside cannot qualify for income-related benefits. All those who are entitled and eligible for benefits are treated equally, regardless of nationality, and assessed appropriately.

The issues of housing benefit and employment are covered in a number of DWP research reports, for example:

Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No 521 ‘Social housing and worklessness: Qualitative research findings’ by Del Roy Fletcher, Tony Gore, Kesia Reeve and David Robinson with Nadia Bashir, Rosalind Goudie and Sonia O'Toole:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130314010347/http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2007-2008/rrep521.pdf

Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No 482 ‘Social housing and worklessness: Key policy messages’ by Del Roy Fletcher, Tony Gore, Kesia Reeve and David Robinson:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130314010347/http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2007-2008/rrep482.pdf

Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No 383 ‘Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit as in work benefits; claimants' and advisors' knowledge, attitudes and experiences’ by Caroline Turley and Andrew Thomas:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130314010347/http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2005-2006/rrep383.pdf

Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No 79 ‘Moving into work: bridging housing costs’ by Bruce Stafford, Claire Heaver, Nicola Croden, Anne Abel Smith, Susan Maguire and Jill Vincent:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130314010347/http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rrep079.pdf

Though these reports date from a number of years ago and in many cases do not reflect the current system of housing benefit, they have been used, where appropriate, in designing the current system of housing support.

Spend in each of the last three full years and the current year to date is as follows:

This includes the cost of printing all forms, information leaflets, marketing and publicity materials, reports and parliamentary papers, all of which are available to individuals and organisations outside DWP. The figures do not include the cost of printing letters sent to claimants and customers.

The EU Administrative Commission on the Coordination of Social Security Systems has established an expert ad-hoc group to examine the format of forms to exchange medical information for benefit purposes. An expert from this Department represents the United Kingdom on that group to ensure that our concerns are addressed in the design of new forms, and that these will be suitable for the transmission of medical information for UK benefits. The group is expected to report to the Administrative Commission by the end of the year.

In line with the Government's austerity agenda, the Department for Work and Pensions has taken vigorous actions to enhance its business travel policy. The DWP's business travel policy actively discourages travel, unless other alternatives have been examined and exhausted. Where travel is deemed appropriate it requires the use of the most cost effective mode of transport.

The expenditure on travel for DWP officials in each of the last five years is as follows:

This information should be viewed in the context of a Department employing around 100,000 staff.

No such estimate has been made as this information is not routinely gathered.

From June 2011 to March 2013 (the period of the latest Work Programme statistical release) £83 million has been paid to providers for claimants in the ESA payment groups (Payment Groups 5, 6 and 7).

The information is as follows:

The Department has no plans to publish figures on incapacity benefit reassessments results by condition group.

The information requested is not available.

However this Department has released estimates on working age benefit recipients which can be found in the publication for NINo allocations to adult overseas nationals entering the UK: registrations to March 2013 here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nino-allocations-to-adult-overseas-nationals-entering-the-uk-registrations-to-march-2013

Statistics on the full breakdown of sanctions issued against jobseeker's allowance (JSA) claimants since 2010-11 can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/series/dwp-statistics-tabulation-tool

Guidance for users is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/203439/tab-tool-guidance.pdf

The statistics on JSA sanctions applied from 22 October 2012 will be published in due course. A proposed publication date will be announced in advance via

https://www.gov.uk/

and

http://www.statsusernet.org.uk/Home/

in the “Welfare and Benefits” community.

DWP directly supports domestic violence victims in a number of ways. The jobseeker’s allowance domestic violence (JSA DV) easement helps victims of actual or threatened domestic violence by allowing a break from jobseeking activity to enable claimants to stabilise their lives and those of their families.

The Domestic Violence Implementation of JSA DV Easement and DDV Concession—Small Scale Qualitative Research published on 20 June 2013—identified nationally that 338 claimants have taken up the four week easement and 115 claimants have taken up the full 13 week easement.

While this demonstrates that the easement is being applied in jobcentres in practice, the research was commissioned by the Department to highlight how we can further improve service delivery.

Work is already under way to implement the recommendations from the report which. includes action to improve the local level understanding of both policies and refreshing guidance and communications to ensure that all claimants who experience domestic violence are able to get the help and support that they need.

DWP directly supports domestic violence victims in a number of ways. The jobseeker’s allowance domestic violence (JSA DV) easement helps victims of actual or threatened domestic violence by allowing a break from jobseeking activity to enable claimants to stabilise their lives and those of their families.

The Domestic Violence Implementation of JSA DV Easement and DDV Concession—Small Scale Qualitative Research published on 20 June 2013—identified nationally that 338 claimants have taken up the four week easement and 115 claimants have taken up the full 13 week easement.

While this demonstrates that the easement is being applied in jobcentres in practice, the research was commissioned by the Department to highlight how we can further improve service delivery.

Work is already under way to implement the recommendations from the report which. includes action to improve the local level understanding of both policies and refreshing guidance and communications to ensure that all claimants who experience domestic violence are able to get the help and support that they need.