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DWP Autumn Performance Report 2004 |
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Appendix One Outstanding targets from 2000 Spending Review The Department has three targets remaining from the SR2000 series of targets against which a final assessment has not been reported. 1. Reform second-tier pension provision, working with pension providers and employers, so that by 2004:
Background This target contributed to the SR2000 objective of combating poverty and promoting security for today’s and tomorrow’s pensioners. The original wording included a requirement for stakeholder pensions to give more people access to good-value, funded second pensions. This aspect of the target has already been achieved. A final assessment was provided in the 2003 Autumn Performance Report. The strategy to deliver the remaining parts of the target is centred on State Second Pension, which was introduced in April 2002, reforming SERPS. A good second pension, building on the foundation of the basic State Pension, is the key to having a comfortable retirement, and achievement of this target gives more people the opportunity to attain a decent retirement income. People with low to moderate earnings can benefit from both State Second Pension and Pension Credit. Measurement Baseline The numbers of people building entitlement to State Second Pension (2 million carers, 2 million disabled people with broken work records, and 14 million low and moderate earners) were based on the caseloads of the qualifying benefits, for carers and disabled people who were not working or earned less than the Lower Earnings Limit, and on the number of employees within specific earnings brackets (low and moderate earners). The information came from Department of Social Security computer systems. Definitions Carers are defined as: people earning less than the Lower Earnings Limit, who for a full year receive Child Benefit in respect of a child under age 6; or are entitled to Carer’s Allowance; or are entitled to Home Responsibilities Protection. A person is defined as disabled for State Second Pension purposes if for a full year he or she is entitled to long-term Incapacity Benefit or Severe Disablement Allowance. Disabled people must have worked and paid (or be treated as having paid) Class 1 National Insurance contributions for at least one tenth of their working life between 1978 and their state pension age. Low earners are defined as employees earning between the Lower Earnings Limit (£4,108 in 2004–05 terms) and the Low Earnings Threshold (£11,600 in 2004–05 terms). Moderate earners are defined as employees earning between the Low Earnings Threshold and the Upper Earnings Threshold (between £11,601 and £26,600 in 2004–05 terms). The Lower Earnings Limit is increased each year in line with prices, whilst the Low and Upper Earnings Thresholds go up in line with increases in average earnings. Data source Data is collected from the National Insurance records system administered by the Inland Revenue. Performance This target has been met (final assessment). Entitlement
to the State Second Pension began to accrue from April 2002 with the first
payments being made to those people who reached state pension age after
April 2003. 2. Make significant progress towards modernising welfare delivery so that:
Background This was part of a wider group of targets aimed at making significant progress towards modernising welfare. Other modernising targets were either superseded by 2002 Spending Review targets or final assessments have already been reported. Measurement Definitions This target will be achieved when all Department for Work and Pensions staff processing Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Incapacity Benefit have available to them a system which allows customer claim details to be captured over the phone or in person, and produces a completed claim form which the customer will be asked to sign. Data source The Department assesses progress in delivering its Customer Management System through its internal project management system. This is centred on project steering committees that monitor progress, and agree progression through the project lifecycle. The Customer Management System Project Steering Committee convenes monthly, and is provided with both a documented status report and verbal updates. Other processes in place for monitoring progress are the Gated Reviews (part of the Department’s governance process) and Office of Government Commerce reviews. Monthly status reports are also provided for the Department’s Efficiency Programme Board, chaired by the Permanent Secretary. Performance The Department is on course to meet this target, through the rollout of the Customer Management System for working-age claims. This system is an information-gathering business process for working-age Income Support/ Jobseeker’s Allowance and Incapacity Benefit new claims. It allows information supplied by the customer over the telephone to be gathered electronically by staff, improving efficiency and customer service. Staff are able to check information supplied against that already held on other legacy systems. The Customer Management System continues to be rolled out nationally in line with the Jobcentre Plus Project rollout schedule, which is due to complete in 2006. At September 2004 it was in use in 10 contact centres (Footnote 52) with 155 linked offices and over 7,350 registered users. Release 2 is currently going through its final test phases and is on track for implementation by the end of 2004. This release will introduce greater efficiencies by enabling data on the Customer Management System to be downloaded automatically onto the Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance IT systems without further clerical intervention. 3. Reducing work-related injury and ill health. Reduce, by 2004–05, compared to 1999–2000:
Background The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are responsible for securing the health, safety and welfare of people at work and the public from work activities, by ensuring risks in the changing working environment are properly controlled. The targets aim to reduce work-related accidents and ill health and comprise the first element of the national Revitalising Health and Safety targets for the period to 2010. (Footnote 53) The HSC’s new strategy to 2010 and beyond, (Footnote 54) announced formally in February 2004, is driven by the need to deliver challenging targets. The strategy reinforces the need to adopt a sensible approach with sensible controls to health and safety, balancing risks and benefits. This is not looking for a risk-free society, but one where risks are better understood and managed. Key features of the HSC strategy include promoting greater involvement of workers, making information readily accessible and involving all stakeholders and forging close working relationships where everyone has a voice and can contribute. In particular, consideration has been given to delivery through others, where an external provider is better placed or can be used to deliver the targets. To help turn the strategy into action and help deliver the targets, HSE has realigned its work into five strategic programmes that bridge both policy and operational functions. This new approach brings together staff from right across HSE’s directorates, combining their expertise and focusing it upon delivering specific improvements in health and safety. Reducing work-related accidents and ill health are also part of the new health and safety Public Service Agreement targets arising from the 2004 Spending Review. The major task in the years to come is, in partnership with others, to deliver the Strategy and achieve the targets and the vision of health and safety as a cornerstone of a civilised society. Measurement HSE statisticians’ methods for assessing progress against the targets are set out in Achieving the Revitalising Health and Safety Targets: Statistical Note on Progress Measurement. (Footnote 55) Baseline Incidence rate of fatal and major injury: in 1999–2000 the injury indicator was 263.2 injuries per 100,000 workers. Number of working days lost per 100,000 workers from work-related injury and ill health: an estimated 40.2 million days per year were lost in 2000–02. Only absolute numbers, rather than rates, are currently available. Incidence rate of cases of work-related ill health: the Self-reported Work-related Illness (SWI) 01/02 survey provides estimates on a self-reported basis closest to the base year. In 2001–02, an estimated 2,200 out of every 100,000 people employed in the last 12 months suffered from a new work-related illness. Data sources The incidence rate of fatalities and major injuries is calculated as the sum of the rates for worker fatalities (reported under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR)) and for employee major injuries (reported under RIDDOR, adjusted for under-reporting using the Labour Force Survey (LFS)). Sources for working days lost from work-related injury and ill health rely on self-reports from the LFS for injury and the associated SWI surveys for illness. For the incidence rate of cases of work-related ill health, various data sources are currently being used, including SWI surveys, surveillance by specialist doctors through The Health and Occupation Reporting Network, benefit claims under the Industrial Injuries Scheme and death certificates for some types of occupational lung disease. Overall workplace health and safety statistics are published annually in the autumn and report figures up to the end of the previous financial year. Fatal injury statistics – and ill health statistics from some sources – are reported annually in the summer and report figures up to the end of the previous financial year. The fatal and major injury target will be reported each autumn comparing the latest data from all relevant sources with that for the base year. The figures are provisional, but revised and finalised in the following year’s report to allow for revised estimates of employment and final processing of late injury notifications. The days lost target data for 2003–04 was published in November 2004. Data will next be available in autumn 2005. After that it is provisionally planned that the next LFS/SWI survey will be in 2005–06. The ill health incidence target will be reported each autumn comparing the latest data from all relevant sources with that for the base year. Limitations to the data include:
Performance
Note: Although the SR2000 period covers 2001–02 to 2003–04 (end point March 2004), an assessment of delivery of these particular targets will not be made until next year. This is because they align with the first element of the Revitalising Health and Safety targets, delivery of which will be assessed in autumn 2005. Incidence rate of fatalities and major injuries (Footnote 56): Slippage. There is a mixed picture but no clear evidence of overall progress since the base year. Working days lost from work-related injury and ill-health: Slippage. The data for 2003–04 show no statistically significant progress since 2000–02, the closest available to the base year. Incidence rate of work-related ill health: Slippage. There is no clear evidence of net progress since the base year. These assessments are based on the latest outturn data, published on 18 November 2004 in Health and Safety Statistics Highlights 2003–04. (Footnote 57) Incidence rate of fatalities and major injuries The rate of fatal injury to workers is at a similar level in 2003–04 as it was in the base year. Recent trends in the LFS are downward: the annual LFS rate of injury has fallen by 3.2 per cent between 1999–2000 and 2002–03 and by 12.5 per cent in 2003–04. This has led to a recent reduction in the averaged LFS rate of injury. The overall rate of reported over-3-day injury is generally showing a downward trend. The trends in production industries are generally downward, with the trends in manufacturing supported by the survey of manufacturing companies. The rate of reported major injury has risen since 2000–01 but the increases in major injuries are concentrated in service industries while there are decreases in the production industries. The largest increases in major injuries tend to be in industries where the numbers of over-3-day injuries have also increased (or stayed level), and where comparison with the LFS suggests improved reporting in these industries. Improved reporting stems mainly from increases in over-3-day injuries but there is likely to be an element of improved reporting for major injuries in services as well which would then be reflected in the recent increases in major injuries. However, until there is more evidence about improved reporting of major injuries in services, then the overall judgment is of no clear evidence of change in the occurrence of major injuries. Working days lost from work-related injury and ill health Taking ill health and injuries together, the overall estimate of working days lost per 100,000 workers has shown no statistically significant change since 2000–02: it was 170,000 in 2003–04 compared with 180,000 in the earlier period. Incidence rate of work-related ill health The latest evidence shows no overall change in work-related ill health
incidence since 1999–2000. The incidence of work-related musculoskeletal
disorders, which had been flat up to around 2001–02, is now falling
(consistent with recent data on risk control). For the other main component
of ill health, work-related stress, the available data suggest a rise
in incidence up to 2001–02 which has now levelled off. There is
also evidence of reductions since 1999 in the incidence of asthma and
dermatitis, but a continued rise for mesothelioma.
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