Asked by: Baroness Sharp of Guildford (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of 17 year-olds in England are participating in education and training in fulfilment of the duty to participate set out in the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009, and what steps they are taking to maximise participation from September 2015 when the requirement to participate increases to the 18th birthday.
Answered by Lord Nash
Young people who were aged 17 at the start of this academic year were covered by the first phase of raising the participation age (RPA) set out in the Education and Skills Act 2008. This required them to continue in education or training for one further year, to 27 June 2014. This cohort is therefore no longer under a duty to participate, although we expect that the vast majority of them will continue to participate this academic year.
Data showing the proportion of these young people participating in the current academic year will be published as part of the 16-18 participation statistical first release at the end of June.
Young people who were aged 16 at the start of this academic year will be under a duty to participate until their 18th birthday. We will encourage schools, colleges and training providers to ensure that young people are aware of this requirement.
In addition, local authorities have a duty to promote the effective participation in education and training of 16 and 17 year olds in their area with a view to ensuring that they fulfil the duty to participate.
We plan to invest £7.2 billion in 2014/15 to fund education and training places for 16 to 19-year-olds. The government has implemented a range of other measures to promote participation and help young people get the best possible start in life, including the reform of vocational education and the Youth Contract.
Asked by: Baroness Sharp of Guildford (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have considered whether it is appropriate that the requirement for an NVQ1 Care Qualification would prevent an experienced teacher with special needs training from working with elderly dementia patients if a back problem prevented that individual from demonstrating making a bed.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The Department does not set the standards/criteria for attainment of NVQ qualifications. This is the responsibility of the appropriate awarding bodies working in partnership with employers, employer representative bodies and sector skills council in the relevant sector. Any proposed revision to NVQ qualifications would be a matter for consideration by the awarding bodies with relevant employers, employer representative bodies and sector skills council.
There is no requirement in adult social care currently for a care worker to hold a specific qualification in order to work in this role. However, under the Care Quality Commission’s registration system, it is the responsibility of the social care employer to determine the range of duties undertaken by the care worker and to ensure they have the necessary training and skills for those duties.
Asked by: Baroness Sharp of Guildford (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government why the Student Loans Company does not provide up-to-date online information about the state of an account, detailing all repayments made into the account via the PAYE system since the last statement was issued.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
HMRC collates employer information on student loan deductions at the end of each tax year and provides this information in P14 “end of year summaries” to the SLC. The SLC calculate interest and statements are issued to borrowers, advising them of their deductions, interest and outstanding balance at the end of the tax year. This process is repeated annually until all student loan repayments are collected.
The repayment information held by the SLC will, as a result of this system, be accurate to the April of the previous tax year. The SLC is not in a position to provide an accurate settlement of a borrower's balance more recently than the previous April. However, the borrower can track and monitor their own settlement balance online if they retain a note of all their repayment deductions made over the tax year.
HMRC, BIS and SLC are currently discussing arrangements to share student loan repayment information more quickly, but there is no mechanism to do so in the current tax system and necessary changes will take some time to implement.
Asked by: Baroness Sharp of Guildford (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government why the Student Loans Company and HM Revenue and Customs joint accounting system is able to continue deducting repayments on loans via the PAYE system even when repayment has been completed; and why in such circumstances it is necessary for the individual customer to alert them to the situation and to reclaim overpayment.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
It is possible for borrowers with Income Contingent Repayment (ICR) loans nearing the end of their repayment term to over-repay their loans because there is a time lag between the deductions from borrowers pay (by employers), HMRC's annual process for student loan repayment accounting and the student loans Company (SLC) subsequently receiving payment information from HMRC. As a consequence it is possible for people to over repay before the SLC becomes aware that their repayments should stop.
Because of this, SLC notifies borrowers in the final 23 months of repayment that they may opt out of the PAYE system and complete their loan repayments by Direct Debit (DD). This would ensure they do not over repay their loan. If borrowers choose not take up DD repayment it is likely that they will over repay. Borrowers are advised to monitor their own repayments. If they can demonstrate to SLC that they have paid enough by providing evidence, such as payslips, SLC can then ask HMRC to issue a "stop" notice to employers and refund any over repayments at the earliest opportunity.
The SLC provides guidance and tools to help borrowers calculate their loan balance and when they are likely to repay their loan in full. The SLC refunds all over repayments to borrowers' bank accounts.