Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to negotiate new reciprocal social security agreements with (a) Australia, (b) Canada and (c) other countries to prevent British pensioners facing poverty in their retirement.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The policy on the up-rating of UK State Pensions paid overseas is longstanding and has been supported by successive post-war governments for over 70 years.
The Government has no plans to change this policy.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
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 potential merits of introducing a method to assess whether a benefit claimant has permanently left the UK.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
DWP takes fraudulent claims very seriously, which is why we have a range of measures in place to identify when someone has permanently left the UK and is no longer entitlement to benefits.
Universal Credit, like certain other benefits, is only payable in the UK, although it can be claimed legitimately during limited periods of absence. Our operational staff are trained to deal with such cases, which helps ensure claimants do not receive benefits incorrectly. For Universal Credit, claimants will also have regular work-focussed interviews as part of their claim.
In addition, we regularly monitor claims, working closely with other Government Departments. For Universal Credit, our increased use of data and analytics, along with enhanced checks where intelligence indicates a risk of fraud, is proving extremely effective in preventing and detecting this type of loss.
Similarly, a combination of data matching and Life Certificates is helping ensure that State Pension is paid correctly to people living overseas.
All individuals in receipt of a DWP benefits are required to inform the Department if their address changes, including if they move to another country. This is clearly set out in our communications to customers. If claims are made where there is no entitlement, the Department will consider formal action and, where appropriate, prosecution. We will also recover any overpayment incurred.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance she has issued to jobcentres to ensure that people coming to the UK from Hong Kong under (a) the BN(O) and (b) other visa schemes are able to secure training and education opportunities using qualifications obtained in Hong Kong.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
BN(O) entering the UK will have no recourse to public funds (NRPF) as stipulated by their visa conditions. A change is being made to Appendix Hong Kong British National (Overseas) which will allow those on the British National (Overseas) route to apply to vary their conditions to have their no recourse to public funds condition lifted where they are able to demonstrate they are destitute or at imminent risk of destitution.
The Department for Work and Pensions will continue to work closely with Home Office and OGDs to ensure of the smooth integration of BN(O)s who choose to settle into the UK.
The UK European Network Information Centre (UK ENIC, and formerly UK NARIC) provides expert advice on behalf of the UK Government on the comparability of international qualifications, including those from Hong Kong to UK qualifications. UK Higher Education Institutions and other educational institutions use the ENIC database to assess the qualifications of applicants for their courses.
Further information on specific provisions across the four nations of the UK will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions she has had with the Canadian Government on a reciprocal social security agreement with the UK covering the uprating of pensions.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Work and Pensions has not had any recent discussions on this issue with the Government of Canada. The Department plans to respond shortly to the request from Canada for a reciprocal social security agreement.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that married women who are state pension age before April 2016 and receive less than 60 per cent of their husband's basic state pension are (a) made aware that they are entitled to an increase up to 60 per cent of their husband's pension, and (b) receive the full amount of their entitlement in a backdated payment.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department is aware of a number of cases where individuals have been underpaid State Pension. We are checking for further cases and any that are found will be looked at in line with the relevant legislation and any arrears payments backdated to the point they became eligible.
Those married women who are already getting a State Pension based on their own National Insurance contributions must make a separate claim for the Category BL top up if their husband reached State Pension age after them and before 17 March 2008. The top up payments can, in accordance with legislation, be backdated for a maximum of 12 months before the date the claim is made.
Any individual who believes they are being underpaid State Pension should contact the Department on the Freephone number 0800 731 0469. Further details on how to do this through the Pension Service are available on the gov.uk website.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to have discussions with the Governments of (a) Australia and (b) Canada on frozen overseas pensions; and is she will make a statement.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State has no plans for discussions with either Australia or Canada, and the Government has no plans to change its policy on the uprating of UK State Pensions overseas. This is a longstanding policy which has been supported by successive Governments for over 70 years.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential health effects on the general population of the Office for Budget Responsibility's forecasted rise in unemployment to 7.5 per cent in 2021.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
A range of evidence shows that being unemployed can negatively affect an individual’s health. Several studies of the UK recession following the financial crisis in 2008 associated it with a rise in health problems, particularly mental health problems. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many factors apart from labour market conditions may affect population health.
The Government has put in place a variety of support to help people stay healthy and to help people who may be experiencing health problems to stay in work or find work. On 23 November, we published our Wellbeing and Mental Health Support plan for COVID-19, which sets out the support available for people in the context of a second wave and the winter months.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that disabled young people are able to access the Kickstart scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are encouraging employers to create a range of opportunities through the Kickstart Scheme for all young people aged 16 to 24 who are at risk of long–term unemployment - including those who have disabilities. Job Centre Plus Work Coaches will identify those young people most in need of the extra support offered by the Kickstart Scheme. We are also encouraging organisations that work with disabled young people to take part in the Kickstart scheme, this can include acting as gateway organisations for employers in their networks to take part in the Kickstart scheme. This will help ensure that young people with disabilities, as well as young people experiencing other disadvantages, are able to access the Kickstart Scheme.
DWP also offers a range of support programmes including Access to Work and Disability Confident to advise and support employers looking to take on disabled jobseekers – this support can be accessed through local Jobcentres or through gov.uk at: www.gov.uk/disability-confident.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
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 effect of the requirement for candidates for the kickstart scheme to be in receipt of universal credit on the take-up of that scheme; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing that requirement.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Our initial focus is on young people who are currently on Universal Credit and at risk of long-term unemployment as they have most to gain from an opportunity like Kickstart. Work Coaches will work with young people to identify those most suitable for the Kickstart scheme and can match suitable young people to vacancies. We will consider expanding to other groups as we grow the volume of Kickstart roles available.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of expenditure on welfare benefits payments was classified as overpaid in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department for Work and Pensions administers over 25 benefits, ensuring that the very different conditions of entitlement are met in each individual instance. We publish annual figures on the amount we estimate has been overpaid under the title ‘Fraud and Error in the Benefit System’.
The percentage of benefit expenditure estimated to have been overpaid for each of the last 10 years can be found in the table below.
Year | Amount overpaid as a percentage of the Department’s expenditure |
2009/10 | 2.2% |
2010/11 | 2.1% |
2011/12 | 2.1% |
2012/13 | 2.1% |
2013/14 | 2.1% |
2014/15 | 1.8% |
2015/16 | 1.9% |
2016/17 | 2.0% |
2017/18 | 2.2% |
2018/19 | 2.2% |
The Department for Work and Pensions has worked hard to deliver major welfare reform during much of this period, all whilst limiting fraud and error to 2.2% or less.
We continue to focus on preventing loss before it occurs, which is in everyone’s interest. Sophisticated data matching rules are increasingly allowing us to cross check what claimants tell us, with potential discrepancies being routed to our fraud investigators.
We are constantly exploring the use of new data sources, which will improve this process still further.