Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) is able to refund PPF levies payments where a pension scheme had been paying the levy and then been found to be ineligible for paying into that fund.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Government Departments are required to reflect any guarantees given in their Annual Report and Accounts. These accounts are laid before Parliament annually.
The Pension Protection Fund will only invoice eligible schemes; but it would refund any levies from schemes that are subsequently found to be ineligible, including where a scheme can demonstrate that it had a historic crown guarantee.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps (a) her Department or (b) the Pension Protection Fund are taking to monitor proactively which pension schemes have a guarantee from a public authority.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Government Departments are required to reflect any guarantees given in their Annual Report and Accounts. These accounts are laid before Parliament annually.
The Pension Protection Fund will only invoice eligible schemes; but it would refund any levies from schemes that are subsequently found to be ineligible, including where a scheme can demonstrate that it had a historic crown guarantee.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether multi-employer last man standing pension schemes that have a guarantee from a public authority for one or more employers are eligible for the Pension Protection Fund.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Under the Pension Protection Fund (Entry Rules) Regulations 2005, schemes which have a guarantee from a public authority are not eligible for the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) and do not usually pay the PPF levy.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who have been affected by the underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment and support allowance in Bristol West constituency.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that Jobcentre Plus clients who need interpreters are provided with interpreting services at appointments with their Work Coach.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP offers interpreting and translation services under the Language Services Contract, currently provided by The Big Word. All DWP staff, including Work Coaches, have access to spoken and non-spoken face to face interpreting, telephone interpreting, British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation through the video relay services, and written translation. These services are readily available to support customers who have additional communication needs.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of financial support requirements of people with long covid.
Answered by Chloe Smith
This government has a strong safety net that helps people who are facing hardship and are unable to support themselves financially, and we have taken steps to strengthen that safety net as part of the government’s response to the pandemic.
Disability benefits do not include or exclude by condition, instead they look at the needs arising from a long-term health condition or disability. People living with a condition arising from exposure to the Covid-19 virus can access the financial support that is available through Statutory Sick Pay, Universal Credit, New Style ESA or Pension Credit depending on individual circumstances. They are also able to access Personal Independence Payment in the same way as other people with long-term conditions or disabilities.
As research into the long-term health symptoms and impacts of Covid-19 is ongoing, we are collaborating across Government to monitor emerging evidence and consider our response.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the impact on UK economic growth and economic productivity of the decrease in the proportion of defined benefit pensions scheme assets invested in company equities and increase in the proportion invested in government debt over the period 2008 to 2020.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It is for trustees to decide how funds in defined benefit (DB) occupational pension schemes are invested. They have a fiduciary duty to do so in the best interest of all their members. As most DB schemes are now closed, and the time available before benefits must be paid is reducing, a gradual shift towards investment in lower risk assets is to be expected.
It is the responsibility of the sponsoring employer to fund the promised benefits in a DB scheme, and these are not dependent on investment performance.
While DB provision has been in long term decline, since the introduction of Automatic Enrolment in 2012, defined contribution pension schemes have grown rapidly. As they are typically much less mature than DB schemes, they will tend to invest in higher proportions of return seeking assets such as equities. This Government is removing barriers to schemes investing directly in the UK economy through private markets, including by encouraging consolidation and requiring schemes to publish the net returns of their default arrangements.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the impact on defined benefit pension scheme members' (a) costs and (b) returns of the decrease in the proportion of defined benefit pensions scheme assets invested in company equities and increase in the proportion invested in government debt over the period 2008 to 2020.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It is for trustees to decide how funds in defined benefit (DB) occupational pension schemes are invested. They have a fiduciary duty to do so in the best interest of all their members. As most DB schemes are now closed, and the time available before benefits must be paid is reducing, a gradual shift towards investment in lower risk assets is to be expected.
It is the responsibility of the sponsoring employer to fund the promised benefits in a DB scheme, and these are not dependent on investment performance.
While DB provision has been in long term decline, since the introduction of Automatic Enrolment in 2012, defined contribution pension schemes have grown rapidly. As they are typically much less mature than DB schemes, they will tend to invest in higher proportions of return seeking assets such as equities. This Government is removing barriers to schemes investing directly in the UK economy through private markets, including by encouraging consolidation and requiring schemes to publish the net returns of their default arrangements.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to eradicate the need for foodbanks.
Answered by Will Quince
Foodbanks are independent, charitable organisations and the Department for Work and Pensions does not have any role in their operation. There is no consistent and accurate measure of food bank usage at a constituency or national level.
We take the issue of food insecurity seriously, which is why we added internationally used food security questions to the Family Resources Survey in 19/20 and published the data in March this year. (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-resources-survey-financial-year-2019-to-2020). Food insecurity data from the Family Resources survey for 20/21 is not yet available.
This Government is wholly committed to supporting those on low incomes, including by increasing the living wage, and by spending an estimated £111 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2020/21. This included around £7.4 billion of Covid-related welfare policy measures.
We introduced our Covid Winter Grant Scheme providing funding to Local Authorities in England to help the most vulnerable children and families stay warm and well fed during the coldest months. It will now run until June as the Covid Local Support Grant, with a total investment of £269m.
We are investing up to £220m in the Holiday Activities and Food programme which has been expanded to every local authority across England this year. Children eligible for benefits-related Free School Meals will have the option to join a holiday club programme that provides healthy food and enriching activities during the summer, Christmas and Easter holidays in 2021. We also increased the value of Healthy Start Vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25 in April.
As the economy recovers, our ambition is to help people move into and progress in work as quickly as possible based on clear evidence around the importance of employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty in all its forms. We are investing over £30 billion in our ambitious Plan for Jobs which is already delivering for people of all ages right across the country.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information she holds on the number of households in (a) in Bristol West constituency and (b) the UK who used a (i) food bank, (ii) food club and (iii) similar organisation for the first time during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Will Quince
Foodbanks are independent, charitable organisations and the Department for Work and Pensions does not have any role in their operation. There is no consistent and accurate measure of food bank usage at a constituency or national level.
We take the issue of food insecurity seriously, which is why we added internationally used food security questions to the Family Resources Survey in 19/20 and published the data in March this year. (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-resources-survey-financial-year-2019-to-2020). Food insecurity data from the Family Resources survey for 20/21 is not yet available.
This Government is wholly committed to supporting those on low incomes, including by increasing the living wage, and by spending an estimated £111 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2020/21. This included around £7.4 billion of Covid-related welfare policy measures.
We introduced our Covid Winter Grant Scheme providing funding to Local Authorities in England to help the most vulnerable children and families stay warm and well fed during the coldest months. It will now run until June as the Covid Local Support Grant, with a total investment of £269m.
We are investing up to £220m in the Holiday Activities and Food programme which has been expanded to every local authority across England this year. Children eligible for benefits-related Free School Meals will have the option to join a holiday club programme that provides healthy food and enriching activities during the summer, Christmas and Easter holidays in 2021. We also increased the value of Healthy Start Vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25 in April.
As the economy recovers, our ambition is to help people move into and progress in work as quickly as possible based on clear evidence around the importance of employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty in all its forms. We are investing over £30 billion in our ambitious Plan for Jobs which is already delivering for people of all ages right across the country.