To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been paid out by the Financial Assistance Scheme since its inception. (114780)

As at 5 January 2007, since its inception the Financial Assistance Scheme had paid out a total of £2,696,967.20 gross (£2,092,759.18 net) to 765 qualifying members. In addition payments will be made to a further 179 people when they reach age 65.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what role the trustees of pension funds have in assisting people in accessing the Financial Assistance Scheme; and what advice his Department is making available to trustees about their role. (115034)

In accessing the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) the role of Trustees is to:

Provide the information required to notify the pension scheme to FAS and to supply the information necessary to determine whether the scheme qualifies.

For schemes that are winding-up, consider applying for initial payments and provide the necessary member data to assess eligibility

For wound up schemes, provide the necessary member data for annual payments to be assessed, or inform FAS who holds this information.

Keep members informed of progress.

The following guidance is made available for trustees

DWP Leaflet P2, sent to all Trustees in September 2004, provides an in depth guide for trustees and scheme professionals

The FAS website provides information, guidance and copies of the FAS legislation

FAS staff have undertaken a series of meetings with all interested trustees to explain the processes, answer any questions and discuss specific pension schemes.

Each scheme is allocated to a Customer Account Manager (CAM) who is available to give guidance to trustees by telephone or personal visit.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the average time taken for applicants eligible for payments from the Financial Assistance Scheme to receive such payments following applications. (115035)

Before the Financial Assistance Scheme is able to start processing applications for individual scheme members, the pension scheme has to complete the Notification and Qualification processes. These involve the trustees and administrators providing basic scheme information to the FAS Operational Unit. They then have six months to provide data on individual members before a notice requiring provision of this information can be issued. As at 29 December 2006, the average time taken (since FAS operations started in September 2005) from first notification of a scheme to the date of the first payment to a member was 190 working days.

Within this period, the average time taken by the FAS Operational Unit from first receipt from the trustees or administrators of member data to the date of the first payment to a member of the scheme was 24 working days.