Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people living overseas (1) benefit from annual state pension increases, and (2) have their state pension frozen.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
The UK State Pension is a contributory based pension payable worldwide, without regard to nationality, to those who meet the eligibility criteria. But it is up-rated abroad only where there is a legal requirement to do so - for example, where UK State Pension recipients are living within the European Economic Area, Switzerland and Gibraltar or in countries where there is a reciprocal agreement that provides for up-rating of the UK State Pension. This is a longstanding policy of successive Governments which has remained consistent for around 70 years.
At May 2017, the latest date for which data is available, there were 1,215,200 recipients of the State Pension residing overseas; 678,100 recipients were resident in countries where annual increases of State Pension are paid, and 537,100 recipients were resident in countries where the State Pension is not up-rated. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many state pensions are being paid to people living overseas.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
The UK State Pension is a contributory based pension payable worldwide, without regard to nationality, to those who meet the eligibility criteria. But it is up-rated abroad only where there is a legal requirement to do so - for example, where UK State Pension recipients are living within the European Economic Area, Switzerland and Gibraltar or in countries where there is a reciprocal agreement that provides for up-rating of the UK State Pension. This is a longstanding policy of successive Governments which has remained consistent for around 70 years.
At May 2017, the latest date for which data is available, there were 1,215,200 recipients of the State Pension residing overseas; 678,100 recipients were resident in countries where annual increases of State Pension are paid, and 537,100 recipients were resident in countries where the State Pension is not up-rated. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people, after two years on the Work Programme, (1) obtained a job, and (2) returned to the jobcentre, in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lord Freud
The Department does not collect official statistics on job starts made by Work Programme participants. Information is collected on the job outcomes paid to Work Programme providers for getting people into sustained employment.
The cumulative number of job outcomes paid (June 2011-March 2015) for people who have completed their allotted time on the Work Programme is 344,900.
The information requested for the number of people who have returned to the Jobcentre on completing the Work Programme is published by month of completion and can be found in the table below. It should be noted that the first applicable month was May 2013 and data is currently available up to 31 March 2015.
| Current Work Programme Status | |
| Completed allotted time: returned to JCP at 104 weeks | Completed allotted time: returned to JCP post 104 weeks |
May-13 | 1,100 | 170 |
Jun-13 | 58,710 | 8,820 |
Jul-13 | 73,230 | 11,210 |
Aug-13 | 45,160 | 7,840 |
Sep-13 | 43,750 | 7,770 |
Oct-13 | 44,700 | 8,170 |
Nov-13 | 43,440 | 7,480 |
Dec-13 | 38,250 | 6,820 |
Jan-14 | 46,440 | 8,340 |
Feb-14 | 40,550 | 7,050 |
Mar-14 | 39,030 | 7,060 |
Apr-14 | 30,530 | 6,030 |
May-14 | 28,200 | 5,600 |
Jun-14 | 28,800 | 5,400 |
Jul-14 | 30,810 | 5,570 |
Aug-14 | 23,780 | 4,280 |
Sep-14 | 27,720 | 4,530 |
Oct-14 | 27,730 | 3,900 |
Nov-14 | 29,630 | 3,120 |
Dec-14 | 24,470 | 2,140 |
Jan-15 | 30,940 | 2,160 |
Feb-15 | 19,810 | 980 |
Mar-15 | 18,770 | 270 |
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people they expect to find jobs as a result of the Disability Confident campaign.
Answered by Baroness Altmann
The Disability Confident campaign makes the business case for recruiting and retaining more disabled people and aims to increase the number of employers taking positive action to be more disability confident. We are not able to measure the number of disabled people moving into employment as a direct result of it, but the campaign is an important contributor towards our commitment to halve the gap between the employment rates of disabled and non-disabled people.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the Work Programme in relation to its support for older people.
Answered by Lord Freud
The Work Programme is succeeding. It is helping push long-term unemployment to its lowest level in over 5 years, and is transforming people’s lives.
An independent evaluation of the Work Programme published by DWP in December 2014 identified that 63.9% of older participants found Work Programme support useful in helping them find work or move closer to work, and 63.5% felt that the support offered through the Work Programme matched their needs.
Since this research was carried out, we have made changes to our contracts with providers to further strengthen our performance management activities, and deliver even better outcomes for participants.
A copy of the full evaluation report has been placed in the House of Commons library.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recent High Court ruling regarding delays in Personal Independence Payments.
Answered by Baroness Altmann
The Court rejected two of the three legal grounds brought by the claimants, finding that their human rights had not been breached and not awarding damages.
Where the Court found that the historic delay for the two claimants was unlawful, they also ruled that they are not “test cases” and it would be inappropriate to make wider findings.
The Court accepted that the Government had made significant improvements to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) process and there are now no inherent failings in the system.
As a result of these improvements, the average time taken for a claimant to be assessed by an assessment provider has fallen by more than three quarters since June 2014. In April 2015, the average new claimant was waiting 5 weeks for their PIP assessment – well within the 16 week target set by the Secretary of State.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effect of removing housing benefit from 18 to 21 year-olds.
Answered by Lord Freud
The detail of the policy will be announced in due course, and the Government will consider the impact in line with our legal obligations as part of that process.