Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pensions have been inherited by an unintended recipient in each of the last five years.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The administration and payment of survivor benefits in occupational pension schemes is the responsibility of individual pension schemes and is not a matter for government.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pensions have been inherited by an unintended recipient in each of the last five years.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The administration and payment of survivor benefits in occupational pension schemes is the responsibility of individual pension schemes and is not a matter for government.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will take steps to ensure pensions are inherited by the intended recipient.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The administration and payment of survivor benefits in occupational pension schemes is the responsibility of individual pension schemes and is not a matter for government.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
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 effectiveness of safeguards to ensure pensions are inherited to the intended recipient.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The administration and payment of survivor benefits in occupational pension schemes is the responsibility of individual pension schemes and is not a matter for government.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the revised dates for the roll-out of universal credit are across job centres within the Ogmore constituency.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The original date for rollout in the Ogmore constituency was for 28 February 2018 and this has been revised to 14 March 2018.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether women can claim the state pension at a younger age if they live abroad.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
A woman’s state pension age is not affected by where she is currently residing.
The current timetable for State Pension age is available at the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/310231/spa-timetable.pdf
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, at what age female UK citizens living in (a) EU and (b) non-EU countries can claim their state pensions.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
A woman’s state pension age is not affected by where she is currently residing.
The current timetable for State Pension age is available at the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/310231/spa-timetable.pdf
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will introduce transitional measures for claimants in receipt of support for mortgage interest when his Department ends the Support for Mortgage Interest allowance.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Transitional provisions are in the Social Security Loans for Mortgage Interest Regulations 2017 to enable claimants who are receiving support for mortgage interest as part of their benefit on 5 April 2018 to have a temporary period in which they can still receive SMI as a benefit. This will allow the SMI benefit payments to continue should there be delays in the operational activity to migrate existing claimants to the loans scheme. This will enable the first loan payment to be made shortly after 6 April if that date falls during the claimant’s benefit week (in the case of a claimant of Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance and State Pension Credit) or assessment period (in the case of a Universal Credit claimant) so that there is no gap in payment between the last SMI benefit award and the first loan payment.
Where an existing claimant lacks mental capacity to make decisions about entering into the loan agreement, the regulations provide for support for mortgage interest as a benefit to continue until a final determination is made as to whether to appoint an appropriate person to act on the claimant’s behalf (such as a Financial Deputy) in respect of the loan agreement.
Transitional provisions are also included to ease the transition from Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance and income-related Employment and Support Allowance to universal credit. Where a claimant who has served the qualifying period in respect of support for mortgage interest before moving on to universal credit, the claimant will not have to serve the qualifying period again (subject to satisfying certain conditions).
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
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 effect of his decision to end the Support for Mortgage Interest allowance on the financial situation of those currently in receipt of that allowance.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
All existing claimants will be offered a support for mortgage interest loan paid at the same rate that is currently available as part of their benefit entitlement. The new loans-based support for mortgage interest will only affect claimants’ financial situation on the sale or transfer of the property, when the loan will be recovered from any available equity.
The Government does not propose to undertake formal evaluation of this change. However, we are committed to monitoring the impacts of our policies and will use evidence from a number of sources to assess the impact on an on-going basis. This will include the updated data that is available to DWP on a quarterly basis, survey data (such as the Family Resources Survey) and feedback from stakeholder groups, including via our regular liaison with UK Finance, to assess whether there are unintended consequences for particular groups.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of people declaring incorrect incomes to avoid child support payments in the last 12 months.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The requested information is not readily available and can only be provided at a disproportionate cost.