Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time is for the Independent Case Examiner to (a) allocate and (b) complete a complaint about the changes to the state pension age.
Answered by Guy Opperman
At the end of August 2018, the average time taken to: (a) allocate a complaint about changes to stage pension age to an investigation case manager for examination was 49 weeks; (b) to complete an investigation into this group of complaints was 9 weeks, from the point of allocation to an investigation case manager.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on what date he approved the 2018-19 budget for the Access to Work programme.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Access to Work programme is demand led so the eventual expenditure incurred in 2018-19 will be driven by the demand experienced during the year.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with a disability have been denied an Access to Work grant at the point of contact.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The information is not available. An Access to Work application would normally be refused at point of contact if the applicant was not eligible for Access to Work. This might be because they were not in work or about to start work, or that they were not disabled.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her Department's policy is on the future of the pensions dashboard; what the cost to the public purse was of the establishment of the dashboard; and what assessment she has made of the merits of the dashboard.
Answered by Guy Opperman
On Tuesday 4 September 2018, I published a written statement providing an update on pensions including the pensions dashboard. The statement can be found here: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-09-04/HCWS933/
Aside from the usual staff running costs, the costs to the Department to date for undertaking the pension dashboard feasibility study are around £100k. This covers the period from October 2017 when the Department assumed policy responsibility from HM Treasury, to end of August 2018 when we published the written statement.
We will shortly report on the findings of the feasibility study.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans are in place to ensure that veterinary surgeons working in meat hygiene from (a) other EU member states and (b) non-EU states to access their pensions if they are no longer domiciled in the UK after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Private pension savings or accrued rights, including pensions accrued through an occupational pension scheme, are treated as the property of the individual scheme member. Private property is protected by both UK and international law. Consequently, individuals who have accrued a private pension in the UK are currently able to access their pension savings or pension rights regardless of whether they are domiciled outside of the UK in either an EU or a non-EU state.
There will be no change for individuals who are domiciled in a non-EU state after the UK leaves the EU.
The reciprocal rights and entitlements that will apply to UK citizens domiciled in EU states when the UK leaves the EU are subject to the wider negotiation on our future relationship with the EU and we will seek to ensure the best possible outcome for the British people, at home and overseas. However, irrespective of the outcome of those negotiations we would expect the current position in respect of private pensions to be maintained. We fully expect that people domiciled in an EU member state will continue to be able to access their UK private pension savings or UK private pension rights after the UK leaves the EU.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what alternative provision her Department plans to put in place for hon. Members' staff to use in place of the Basildon Service Centre for universal credit full service enquiries.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Prior to the roll-out of Universal Credit Full Service in their constituency, we write to each hon. Member. The letter explains the implicit consent arrangements for MPs and also provides the telephone number and email address of the District Manager in the constituency, so that MPs can contact District Managers if there are urgent constituent cases that need attention. This is the best route to raise issues on behalf of constituents and works well because MPs’ offices can establish local relationships.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many current contracts her Department has with Serco; and what the (a) value, (b) start date and (c) end date of each of those contracts is.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The information requested, comprising of 6 contracts, current at the 6th of July 2018, is illustrated in the table below.
Title | Value | Start Date | End Date |
Work Programme - CPA17 | £47,049,379 | 29/06/2011 | 29/09/2021 |
Work Programme - CPA15 | £77,037,531 | 29/06/2011 | 29/09/2021 |
Support for Mortgage Interest Information Provider | £5,188,978 | 19/07/2017 | 19/01/2019 |
PIP - Contact Centre Service | £11,807,000 | 17/10/2016 | 29/02/2020 |
Universal Credit Interview Booking Contact Centre Service | £8,887,102 | 12/10/2016 | 29/07/2018 |
Warm Home Discount Scheme (WHDS) | £2,633,000 | 17/08/2015 | 03/08/2020 |
North & East London Troubled Families - ESF (England 2014-20) | £5,588,147 | 01/12/2016 | 16/04/2021 |
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to provide additional support to Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) claimants who lack capacity to apply for SMI as a loan.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Where a claimant lacks capacity to make a decision, DWP communicates directly with the claimant’s representative to identify the appropriate person with legal capacity to make a decision for the claimant. The appropriate person is sent all relevant letters and forms, undertakes the informed discussion and signs the Loan forms where the loan is accepted. Identifying the appropriate person may take additional time so SMI benefit can be paid for an extended period until November 2018 where appropriate under transitional arrangements. In some cases where an application for financial Deputyship has been made and not yet decided this period can extend beyond November 2018.