Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why the Department for Work and Pensions' Independent Case Examiner’s Office has closed its review of complaints regarding the changes in women's state pension age.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
When a department and independent bodies face a legal case, they have to review whether they continue to assess claims or await determination of the legal case. This has been the policy under all governments, Labour, Coalition, and Conservative, for decades.
The Independent Case Examiner (ICE) closed all live cases which concerned complaints about the state pension age for women (WASPI) when they became subject to legal proceedings, as is required under its governance contract. In the event the legal proceedings fall away or there is no determination on the matters which form the basis of the WASPI complaints, the ICE could consider reopening the cases at the request of the Department.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many women born in the 1950s and who retired between the age of 60 and the revised state pension age are in receipt of Universal Credit.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
The available information is shown below and shows the number of women aged 60 and above who are on Universal Credit by employment status as of December 2018.
Number of Women on Universal Credit by age group and employment status, December 2018, Great Britain:
Age group | |||
Employment Status | 60-65 | Over 65 | Total |
Not in employment | 25,800 | 198 | 26,003 |
In employment | 10,181 | 41 | 10,223 |
Total | 35,978 | 240 | 36,221 |
Source: Stat-Xplore, Department for Work and Pensions.
The Department does not centrally collate information on a person’s retirement status except when State Pension is being claimed. This would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to promote equal access to intern opportunities for all; and how many disabled people have received help from the Access to Work Fund in order to participate fully in internship programmes.
Answered by Lord Freud
Her Majesty’s Government promote equal access to intern opportunities through a series of communications strands such as:
· The rising awareness of Disability Confident Britain and it’s media profile will help increase awareness of the Access to Work (AtW) support available;
· Continually improving and developing Advisory knowledge and skills in supporting Disabled People into work and remaining in work, and;
· Marketing the Jobcentre Plus offer directly to employers and other organisations and institutions.
Moreover, Access to Work gives practical support and help to meet additional costs to overcome barriers. AtW can usually support people only in paid internships, however we have extended Access to Work to cover the Supported internships scheme for young people with special educational needs and for young people undertaking Traineeships. DWP does not have a robust means of reporting programme volumes for internships.