Asked by: Amy Callaghan (Scottish National Party - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he provide data on the take up of Pension Credit by constituency in Scotland as of 8 March 2023.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Take-up statistics for Pension Credit are available at Great Britain level only. The most recent take-up statistics are publicly available in the “Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up” publication which can be found on the statistics section of gov.uk. The latest publication relates to the financial year 2019 to 2020.
Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year 2019 to 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The most recent caseload statistics for Pension Credit refer to August 2022, and are publicly available via DWP Stat-xplore. The table below shows the Pension Credit caseload statistics by constituency in Scotland in August 2022.
Aberdeen North | 1766 |
Aberdeen South | 1143 |
Airdrie and Shotts | 2662 |
Angus | 2043 |
Argyll and Bute | 2290 |
Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock | 2690 |
Banff and Buchan | 1822 |
Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk | 2123 |
Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross | 1744 |
Central Ayrshire | 2714 |
Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill | 2886 |
Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East | 2102 |
Dumfries and Galloway | 2877 |
Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale | 2201 |
Dundee East | 1962 |
Dundee West | 2414 |
Dunfermline and West Fife | 1529 |
East Dunbartonshire | 1123 |
East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow | 2194 |
East Lothian | 1936 |
East Renfrewshire | 1479 |
Edinburgh East | 2041 |
Edinburgh North and Leith | 1618 |
Edinburgh South | 1262 |
Edinburgh West | 1251 |
Edinburgh South West | 1457 |
Falkirk | 2491 |
Glasgow Central | 3089 |
Glasgow East | 3939 |
Glasgow North | 1878 |
Glasgow North East | 3736 |
Glasgow North West | 2829 |
Glasgow South West | 3337 |
Glasgow South | 2632 |
Glenrothes | 2218 |
Gordon | 1114 |
Inverclyde | 2603 |
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey | 1941 |
Kilmarnock and Loudoun | 2670 |
Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath | 2300 |
Lanark and Hamilton East | 2825 |
Livingston | 2331 |
Linlithgow and East Falkirk | 2412 |
Midlothian | 1693 |
Moray | 1895 |
Motherwell and Wishaw | 2928 |
Na h-Eileanan an Iar | 1043 |
North Ayrshire and Arran | 2943 |
North East Fife | 1338 |
Ochil and South Perthshire | 1954 |
Orkney and Shetland | 810 |
Paisley and Renfrewshire North | 2006 |
Paisley and Renfrewshire South | 2357 |
Perth and North Perthshire | 2058 |
Ross, Skye and Lochaber | 1628 |
Rutherglen and Hamilton West | 3205 |
Stirling | 1685 |
West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine | 996 |
West Dunbartonshire | 2858 |
Total | 127080 |
Asked by: Amy Callaghan (Scottish National Party - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the socioeconomic impact of changes to the state pension for 1950s-born women in each constituency in Scotland.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Successive governments have given due consideration to the impact of the proposals made in the Pensions Acts of 1995, 2007, 2011 and 2014, that introduced changes to the State Pension age. These assessments have been published.
No assessments have been made specifically on individual constituencies in Scotland.
Asked by: Amy Callaghan (Scottish National Party - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his planned timetable is for increasing the the state pension age to 68.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
State Pension age is currently 66 and two further increases are currently in legislation: a gradual rise to 67 for those born on or after April 1960; and a gradual rise to 68 between 2044 and 2046 for those born on or after April 1977.
The Pensions Act 2014 requires Government to regularly review State Pension age. The first review in 2017 accepted a recommendation by John Cridland CBE to bring forward the increase in State Pension Age to 68 to between 2037 and 2039, subject to a further review before legislating. Work is underway on the second Government Review of State Pension age which, must be published by May 2023. This Review will consider a wide range of evidence, including findings from two independent reports, to assess whether the rules about State Pension age remain appropriate. We cannot pre-empt the outcome of the Review.
Asked by: Amy Callaghan (Scottish National Party - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the (a) medium-term and (b) long-term sustainability of the supply of (i) Molybdenum-99 generators, (ii) Iodine-131medical grade radioisotopes and (iii) other medical grade radioisotopes.
Answered by Will Quince
We are working closely with officials in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero who are leading a £6 million funded Medical Radionuclide Innovation Programme. This is focused on safeguarding the provision and development of radiopharmaceuticals for United Kingdom patients in the medium and long-term and encouraging innovation in technologies and techniques that could support access to radioisotopes in order to increase the UK’s resilience in times of global supply constraints or shortages. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has commissioned a landscape assessment to inform Government action in this area.
We routinely monitor short-term threats to the supply of medical grade radioisotopes, including through regular contact with UK suppliers, and has well-established processes which aim to prevent supply issues occurring in the first instance, and to manage or mitigate them when they occur. There are currently no active UK supply issues with medical radioisotopes.
Asked by: Amy Callaghan (Scottish National Party - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of medical grade radioisotopes in the UK including (a) Molybdenum-99 generators and and (b) Iodine-131.
Answered by Will Quince
We are working closely with officials in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero who are leading a £6 million funded Medical Radionuclide Innovation Programme. This is focused on safeguarding the provision and development of radiopharmaceuticals for United Kingdom patients in the medium and long-term and encouraging innovation in technologies and techniques that could support access to radioisotopes in order to increase the UK’s resilience in times of global supply constraints or shortages. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has commissioned a landscape assessment to inform Government action in this area.
We routinely monitor short-term threats to the supply of medical grade radioisotopes, including through regular contact with UK suppliers, and has well-established processes which aim to prevent supply issues occurring in the first instance, and to manage or mitigate them when they occur. There are currently no active UK supply issues with medical radioisotopes.
Asked by: Amy Callaghan (Scottish National Party - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the National Audit Office report entitled Child maintenance, published in March 2022, whether he has taken recent steps to help improve levels of customer service at the Child Maintenance Service.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Minister for Lords and officials appeared at the Work and Pensions Select committee on 18 January 23 to discuss ‘Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service’ which included discussion on recommendations from NAO and the domestic abuse review conducted by Dr Samantha Callan.
These discussions highlighted the following;
o Services that have been made available online and therefore 24/7 and, in many cases, now delivered via automation and therefore faster and more responsive.
o The introduction of online Get Help Arranging Child Maintenance service providing support to separated parents in managing their own affairs as well as making the CMS more accessible.
o A wider organisational redesign is underway with a key priority to improve customer experience.
o Recommendations on training have been adopted: domestic abuse awareness training is in place and training is being reviewed with a view to strengthening.
o Recommendation on single caseworker treatment is being piloted currently.
o The Department’s 2020/21 Customer Experience Survey and the CMS Customer Experience Survey are currently unpublished, so we are unable to share the findings at this time.
o The reason for the delay is because of the impacts of Covid on the survey, resulting in an extended QA process.
o Steps are in place to publish the findings and the final sign off procedures are currently taking place within the Department, with the intention to publish by Summer 2023.
Asked by: Amy Callaghan (Scottish National Party - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the Child Maintenance Service’s system of payment enforcement.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to take rigorous action to collect maintenance, combining robust negotiation activity with the highly effective use of its extensive range of Enforcement Powers. This approach is driven by the Payment Compliance strategy increasing CMS compliance influencing activities to tackle non-paying cases and challenge non-compliant behaviours. CMS applies a Continuous Improvement focus to Enforcement strategy and processes.
Total child maintenance collected using Enforcement Actions amounted to £36.1 million in the quarter to September 2022 compared with £33.8 in September 2021 and £28.4 in September 2020. This rise in collections is linked directly to increased collections through Deductions from Earnings Orders, lump sum and regular deductions taken directly from paying parents’ bank accounts, Liability Order and Bailiff actions and making full use of all available sanctions.
(Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics : National Tables – table 7.1 ‘Enforcement Actions’, April 2015 to September 2022).
As a result of a focussed effort to increase enforcement activity £49.4 million was paid through the Collect & Pay service in the quarter ending September 2022 compared to £47.4. million in the quarter ending September 2021.
(Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics : National Tables – table 5 ‘Money Due and Paid each quarter’ January 2015 to September 2022).
There has been a consistent downward trend in the proportion of unpaid maintenance as a proportion of maintenance arranged since 2017, falling from 12.5% in 2017 to 8.2% in September 2022.
(Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics : National Tables - table 6 ‘ how much maintenance CMS has arranged March 2015 to September 2022).
Asked by: Amy Callaghan (Scottish National Party - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing the charge paid by single parents when seeking support from a former partner through the Child Maintenance Service.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The £20 Child Maintenance Service (CMS) application fee is designed to encourage parents to consider whether they can make their own private family-based arrangements rather than apply to the statutory scheme by default as this tends to be in the best interests of children.
The fee is waived if domestic abuse has been experienced by the applicant or any children in the household and for parents aged under 19 to ensure the most vulnerable do not face a barrier in accessing the statutory scheme.
Asked by: Amy Callaghan (Scottish National Party - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to increase social security payments available to parents under 25 years old, in line with payments available to parents over 25.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There are no plans to change the policy around the standard allowance rates for those under 25 at this time.
Asked by: Amy Callaghan (Scottish National Party - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the National Audit Office report entitled Child maintenance, published in March 2022, whether his Department has taken recent steps to help increase the number of successful child maintenance arrangements.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As at September 2022 there were 872,000 children covered by Child Maintenance Service (CMS) arrangements. The service has recorded an increase in the number of children covered by CMS arrangements increasing by 25,700 between June 2022 and September 2022.
Under the Direct Pay service Child Maintenance Service provides the calculation and no further use of the service is required. Parents are issued a text message three months after they set up their arrangement and at each annual review, to check the arrangement is still meeting their requirements. If they cannot arrange payments between themselves or a Paying Parent does not keep up with the payments, the Receiving Parent can ask to switch to the Collect and Pay Service.
61% of all Child Maintenance Service arrangements use Direct Pay with 37% using Collect and Pay.
At the end of September 2022:
The number of children covered by CMS arrangements has increased steadily over the last 2 years.
(Source – Child Maintenance Service published statistics – data to September 2022)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to take rigorous action to collect maintenance, combining robust negotiation activity with the highly effective use of its extensive range of Enforcement Powers. This approach is driven by the Payment Compliance strategy increasing CMS compliance influencing activities to tackle non-paying cases and challenge non-compliant behaviours. CMS applies a Continuous Improvement focus to Enforcement strategy and processes.
Total child maintenance collected using enforcement actions amounted to £36.1 million in the quarter to September 2022 compared with £33.8 in September 2021 and £28.4 in September 2020. This rise in collections is linked directly to increased collections through Deductions from Earnings Orders, lump sum and regular deductions taken directly from paying parents’ bank accounts, Liability Order and Bailiff actions and making full use of all available sanctions.
(Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics : National Tables – table 7.1 ‘Enforcement Actions’, April 2015 to September 2022).
As a result of a focussed effort to increase enforcement activity and influence Paying Parents to pay their child maintenance £49.4 million was paid through the Collect & Pay service in the quarter to September 2022 compared to £45.6 million in the quarter ending March 2022 when the NAO report was published.
(Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics : National Tables – table 5 ‘Money Due and Paid each quarter’ January 2015 to September 2022).
There has been a consistent downward trend in the proportion of unpaid maintenance as a proportion of maintenance arranged since 2017, falling from 12.5% in 2017 to 8.2% in September 2022.
(Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics : National Tables - table 6 ‘ how much maintenance CMS has arranged March 2015 to September 2022).