Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Q338 of the evidence given to the Work and Pensions Committee by the Minister for Pensions on 10 January 2024, HC144, how he plans to use the £12 billion surplus in the Pension Protection Fund.
Answered by Paul Maynard
No decisions have been made with regard to the reserves held by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF). Operational decisions about the PPF are a matter for the Board of the PPF, who have a key role to play in considering the use of its reserves.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 February 2024 to Question 12888 on Workplace Pensions, for what reason the findings of that work will not be published.
Answered by Paul Maynard
I would refer the Hon. Gentleman to the previous response. It is not convention to disclose policy discussions between Ministers and officials as a matter of course.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether claimants of employment and support allowance with motor neurone disease will continue to be subject to health reassessments.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
There is no condition based entitlement to Employment Support Allowance.
We are working with medical professionals and other stakeholders to develop functional criteria that will help us identify those with the most severe health conditions or disabilities, for whom repeat work capability assessments can be stopped.
Rather than a list of specific medical conditions, the criteria will be based on identifying claimants with the most severe health conditions or disabilities where it would be unreasonable to expect the individual to undertake any form or amount of work or work-related activity. This change will only apply to those placed in the Support Group and UC equivalent.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Government has made of the (a) effectiveness of those relationship support services provided by Relate which are funded from the public purse and (b) effect of those services on family stability.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
We are working to improve outcomes for children and believe in the importance of tackling parental conflict to achieve this. We will shortly be publishing a green paper on Social Justice that will set out our strategy for taking this work forward.
The Department funds a range of services nationally that do good work to support families in need. Relate is one of a number of organisations funded by the Department to provide services to help reduce couple conflict and promote family stability.
All of the organisations are subject to a ‘payment by results’ arrangement where payments are only made once we are satisfied that an agreed service has been delivered. Alongside this we also monitor the effectiveness of the service by assessing improvements in key areas such as improved conflict resolution and relationship quality. While no formal assessment is being made into impact on family stability specifically, the services currently being delivered by Relate and similar services have been shown to have a positive effect on relationship quality, wellbeing and communication.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent representations he has received on Government funding of services by Relate; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
This Department enjoys a constructive relationship with the Relationship Alliance and we engage with them frequently on a range of topics. I was fortunate to meet with Relate, along with the other members of the Relationship Alliance, on the 23 January this year. We had a productive discussion on a range of topics, including the challenges associated with tackling parental conflict at a national level. The Department has collaborated with Relate as well as a range of stakeholders to develop a new program to tackle parental conflict.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent representations he has received on Government funding of services provided by Relate; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Relate is one of a number of organisations which the DWP currently funds to provide services to help reduce couple conflict and promote family stability. All of the organisations are subject to rigorous contract management by DWP which includes regular scrutiny of their effectiveness and impact on families.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Government has made of the (a) effectiveness of those relationship support services provided by Relate which are funded from the public purse and (b) effect of those services on family stability.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Relate is one of a number of organisations which the DWP currently funds to provide services to help reduce couple conflict and promote family stability. All of the organisations are subject to rigorous contract management by DWP which includes regular scrutiny of their effectiveness and impact on families.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department's policies and procedures are for the retention and disposal of personal data such as previous addresses, telephone numbers and benefit payment records.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Department has clear policies and procedures in place to ensure that personal data and benefit records held by DWP are handled in line with the requirements of the Data Protection Act.
Personal data supplied in support of an application for benefits is retained for 14 months after the claim closes, at which point it is destroyed.
The retention of financial data in relation to benefit payment records is governed by HMRC policy. This data is retained for 6 years from the end of the financial year and then destroyed.
Documents containing personal data which is classed as ephemeral to benefit cases are retained for 4 weeks from the date of receipt, and then destroyed.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of its senior civil servants who will potentially fall under the provisions of the 4th EU Money Laundering Directive, 2015/849; and what assessment he has made of which of his Department's agencies or other public bodies will potentially be classed as holding a prominent public function for the purposes of that directive.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Under the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which will be transposed into national law by June 2017, a politically exposed person is one who has been entrusted with a prominent public function domestically or by a foreign country. This would include some senior civil servants, such as ambassadors and chargés d'affaires. The Government's view is that the Directive permits a risk-based approach to the identification of whether an individual is a politically exposed person and, when identified, the Directive enables the application of different degrees of enhanced measures to reflect the risks posed. The Government will be setting out this view in a consultation which will be published shortly.
The changes proposed under the Directive should not prevent any individual in this category from gaining or maintaining access to financial services. The Treasury regularly raises these issues with financial institutions and the regulator, and we encourage financial institutions to take a proportionate, risk-based approach when applying these measures.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans he has to provide for exemptions for young people who cannot live with their parents from the removal of housing benefit for 18 to 21 year olds.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
To prevent young people slipping straight into a life on benefits, from April 2017 the Government will remove the automatic entitlement to housing support for new claims in Universal Credit from 18-21 year olds who are out of work. This will ensure young people in the benefits system face the same choices as young people who work and who may not be able to afford to leave home.
We will ensure that vulnerable young people who are in need of support for their housing needs continue to receive it. Government will consider the impact in line with our legal obligations as part of that process.