Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of job roles advertised within her Department in (a) 2016 and (b) 2017 excluded the box under the Ban the Box initiative.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The application form template used by the Government Recruitment Services (GRS), who manage all recruitment activities on DWPs behalf, does not ask about criminal convictions.
This particular question is only raised as part of the pre-employment checking for candidates who have been deemed successful at the last stage of the recruitment process.
DWP are fully compliant with the ban the box initiative. Therefore, no advertised jobs were excluded in 2016 or 2017.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to bring the maximum amount for the old state pension in line with the new state pension.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Direct comparisons between the old State Pension and the new State Pension are not appropriate.
People reaching State Pension age before 6 April 2016 could be entitled to a basic State Pension and an additional State Pension. The full amount of the basic State Pension (£122.30 a week for 2017/18) was reached after 30 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions or credits. The amount of additional State Pension was based on earnings over a full working life and its value ranges from £0.01p a week to over £160 a week. Legislation requires that the basic State Pension is uprated by at least the increase in earnings each year and the additional State Pension by at least the increase in prices.
The new State Pension replaced the old system for people reaching State Pension age from 6 April 2016 with a single pension which, after a transition period which recognises people’s National Insurance records in the old system, will require 35 qualifying years to achieve the full amount of £159.55 a week. Legislation requires the new State Pension is uprated by at least earnings each year.
As set out in The single-tier pension: a simple foundation for saving (Command 8528), the objective of the new State Pension is to provide a foundation for private saving by individuals and is designed to deliver an amount set at or above the level of the weekly means test which most people should be able to achieve. The new State Pension system has been designed to provide a simpler, sustainable system for decades to come, correcting some of the historic unfairness in the previous system, in particular for women, self-employed people and lower paid workers.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the requirement for a person to have 10 years of qualifying national insurance contributions to receive any state pension on poverty and homelessness of people aged over 60 in (a) Wales and (b) the UK.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The new State Pension has a minimum qualifying period of ten years to ensure that only people who have made a significant economic and social contribution can become entitled. However, people who do not satisfy the Minimum Qualifying Period may be entitled to means tested benefits. For example, Pension Credit provides means tested support for low income pensioners and works by topping up any other income to a standard minimum amount and Housing Benefit provides support for rent for those on a low income.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in (a) Ceredigion, (b) Wales and (c) the UK are not eligible for the new state pension due to having less than 10 years of National Insurance contributions.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The new State Pension was introduced for those persons reaching State Pension age on, or after, 6th April 2016. Our latest data on the number of qualifying years people have are for the 2015/16 financial year, so we do not yet have any data on the numbers of people reaching State Pension age under the new State Pension with less than 10 years of National Insurance contributions.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons the maximum amount available under the new state pension is higher than the maximum amount available under the old state pension.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Direct comparisons between the old State Pension and the new State Pension are not appropriate.
People reaching State Pension age before 6 April 2016 could be entitled to a basic State Pension and an additional State Pension. The full amount of the basic State Pension (£122.30 a week for 2017/18) was reached after 30 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions or credits. The amount of additional State Pension was based on earnings over a full working life and its value ranges from £0.01p a week to over £160 a week. Legislation requires that the basic State Pension is uprated by at least the increase in earnings each year and the additional State Pension by at least the increase in prices.
The new State Pension replaced the old system for people reaching State Pension age from 6 April 2016 with a single pension which, after a transition period which recognises people’s National Insurance records in the old system, will require 35 qualifying years to achieve the full amount of £159.55 a week. Legislation requires the new State Pension is uprated by at least earnings each year.
As set out in The single-tier pension: a simple foundation for saving (Command 8528), the objective of the new State Pension is to provide a foundation for private saving by individuals and is designed to deliver an amount set at or above the level of the weekly means test which most people should be able to achieve. The new State Pension system has been designed to provide a simpler, sustainable system for decades to come, correcting some of the historic unfairness in the previous system, in particular for women, self-employed people and lower paid workers.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons claimants are required to have 35 years of national insurance contributions instead of 30 years to qualify for the new state pension.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Direct comparisons between the old State Pension and the new State Pension are not appropriate.
People reaching State Pension age before 6 April 2016 could be entitled to a basic State Pension and an additional State Pension. The full amount of the basic State Pension (£122.30 a week for 2017/18) was reached after 30 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions or credits. The amount of additional State Pension was based on earnings over a full working life and its value ranges from £0.01p a week to over £160 a week. Legislation requires that the basic State Pension is uprated by at least the increase in earnings each year and the additional State Pension by at least the increase in prices.
The new State Pension replaced the old system for people reaching State Pension age from 6 April 2016 with a single pension which, after a transition period which recognises people’s National Insurance records in the old system, will require 35 qualifying years to achieve the full amount of £159.55 a week. Legislation requires the new State Pension is uprated by at least earnings each year.
As set out in The single-tier pension: a simple foundation for saving (Command 8528), the objective of the new State Pension is to provide a foundation for private saving by individuals and is designed to deliver an amount set at or above the level of the weekly means test which most people should be able to achieve. The new State Pension system has been designed to provide a simpler, sustainable system for decades to come, correcting some of the historic unfairness in the previous system, in particular for women, self-employed people and lower paid workers.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to review the Child Maintenance Service's practice of allowing a five working days' grace period for non-payment of child maintenance payments.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is required to consider the circumstances of the paying parent when scheduling how and when payments are to be made. By setting payments in line with a paying parent’s preferred payment date and frequency, the paying parent is more likely to make the required payments on time.
Before a payment is considered as ‘late’ or ‘missed’, the CMS allow an additional 5 days for payment to be received (either into CMS or direct to the receiving parent). This timescale is applied as different payment options, for instance direct debit, standing order or cheque, all have set clearance times. These clearance times are set by banks and are outside of CMS control. Clearance times can vary from bank to bank and can be affected by the type of account they are made from or to. Clearance times apply to banking or working days and it would not be right to penalise a paying parent if their usual payment date falls on a bank holiday or weekend as their payment would not be processed by the bank. There is no current plan to change the period before which a payment is considered late, though as banking processes evolve we will keep this under review.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people claiming jobseeker's allowance in (a) Ceredigion, (b) Wales and (c) the UK have a criminal record.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans he has to introduce a child poverty strategy for 2018 to 2021.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Tackling child poverty and disadvantage is a priority for this government. To do this requires an approach that goes beyond the safety net of the welfare state to tackle the root causes of poverty and disadvantage. This is why the income-related targets and the requirement to publish a child poverty strategy set out in the Child Poverty Act 2010 have been repealed. In their place, we have introduced statutory measures to drive action on parental worklessness and children’s educational attainment – the two areas that we know can make the biggest difference to disadvantaged children.
Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families, published on 4 April, set out a framework for a continued focus on improving children’s outcomes, now and in the future. It introduced seven non-statutory indicators and underlying measures to track progress in other areas, such as parental conflict, problem debt and homelessness, that are important in tackling the disadvantages that can affect families’ and children’s outcomes.
The Government has a statutory duty to report annually to Parliament on parental worklessness and children’s education attainment. The latest data on the non-statutory indicators will also be published each year.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish a report on the progress of the delivery of the Government's child poverty strategy against its initial objectives.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Tackling child poverty and disadvantage is a priority for this government. To do this requires an approach that goes beyond the safety net of the welfare state to tackle the root causes of poverty and disadvantage. This is why the income-related targets and the requirement to publish a child poverty strategy set out in the Child Poverty Act 2010 have been repealed. In their place, we have introduced statutory measures to drive action on parental worklessness and children’s educational attainment – the two areas that we know can make the biggest difference to disadvantaged children.
Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families, published on 4 April, set out a framework for a continued focus on improving children’s outcomes, now and in the future. It introduced seven non-statutory indicators and underlying measures to track progress in other areas, such as parental conflict, problem debt and homelessness, that are important in tackling the disadvantages that can affect families’ and children’s outcomes.
The Government has a statutory duty to report annually to Parliament on parental worklessness and children’s education attainment. The latest data on the non-statutory indicators will also be published each year.