Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much money her Department has spent to date on the development of the pensions dashboard.
Answered by Guy Opperman
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 I published the written statement.
Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether it is the Government's policy to continue the roll-out the Pensions Dashboard; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Guy Opperman
On Tuesday 4 September 2018, I published a written statement providing an update on pensions including the pensions dashboard. This can be found here: : https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-09-04/HCWS933/
We will shortly report on the findings of the Feasibility Study, and will engage with industry, consumer groups and other stakeholders to agree timelines for delivery.
Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether wind chill factor is taken into account in the calculation of cold weather payments.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The current Cold Weather Payment service is supported by measurements of air temperature and wind chill is not taken into account.
Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of fuel poverty in (a) Wolverhampton local authority area and (b) Wolverhampton North East constituency; how many Cold Weather Payments have been issued to people in each of those areas; and how many people have benefitted from the Warm Home Discount Scheme in each of those areas.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The table below provided by Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy shows the number and proportion of households living in fuel poverty in Wolverhampton Local Authority area and Wolverhampton North East constituency for the latest data available (2015).
| Fuel Poor Households | Percent Fuel Poor |
Wolverhampton Local Authority area | 15,200 | 14.6% |
Wolverhampton North East constituency | 5,400 | 14.6% |
Household figures have been rounded to the nearest 100.
The Cold Weather Payment scheme is administered at weather station level rather than any other standard GB geography such as constituency level. The coverage area for each weather station is determined by the Met Office which assesses the most appropriate weather station for each postcode area. Cold weather payments are triggered when the average temperature recorded at the weather station has been recorded as, or is forecast to be, 0oC or below over seven consecutive days, during the Cold Weather season (November to March).
The Wolverhampton local authority area covers all or part of the following postcode areas: WV1-4, WV6, WV8-14. The constituency of Wolverhampton North East covers all or part of the following postcode areas: WV 1-4, WV 7-9, WV 10-13.
All of the above postcode areas are covered by the Coleshill weather station. Qualifying individuals living in this area will have received a payment in respect of a seven-day period of Cold Weather from 24th February – 2nd March 2018. No other payments have been triggered in the Coleshill weather station area in the current Cold Weather season.
Coleshill weather station covers the following postcode areas: B1-21, B23-38, B40, B42-50, B60-80, B90-98, CV1-12, CV21-23, CV31-35, CV37, CV47, DY1-14, LE10, WS1-15, WV1-16. We estimate that 289,000 payments were made in this area as a whole in respect of the trigger on 24th February. We are not able to break this figure down to a lower level.
Notes
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cold-weather-payment-statistics-2017-to-2018
The Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy do not hold data on Warm Home Discount recipients at Local Authority or Parliamentary Constituency level.
Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the consequences of the deficit in the Carillion pension scheme for pension holders; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Carillion is the sponsoring employer for 13 separate defined benefit schemes which it acquired as it expanded. Most, or all of the schemes, will enter a Pension Protection Fund (PPF) assessment period during which the PPF will be testing to see if a scheme can secure at least PPF level benefits for its members without further support. If it can, a scheme will buy members’ annuities to pay for their pensions. If not, a scheme will transfer into the PPF with a consequential effect on members’ benefits; In general, those over scheme pension age at the date of insolvency get compensation equal to 100 per cent of their pension initially, while members below that age at the date of insolvency get compensation equal to 90 per cent of their accrued pension, subject to an overall cap.
Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wycombe)
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 change in the level of unemployment in Wolverhampton North East constituency in the last 12 months; and what assessment she made of the reasons for the number of people unemployed in that constituency being higher than the national average.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Since the 2010 election, the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) Labour Force Survey data shows that the level and rate of unemployment has fallen in every region and country of the UK.
Estimates of the unemployment rate (age 16+) for Parliamentary Constituency Areas (PCA), and the UK as a whole, are available based upon the ONS’ Annual Population Survey data. However, the PCA unemployment rate estimates are based on small sample of survey respondents and are therefore subject to a high degree of statistical uncertainty.
The ONS estimate that the unemployment rate in Wolverhampton North East for October 2015 to September 2016 was 9.7%. For the latest period (October 2016 to September 2017) the ONS estimate the unemployment rate was 9.0%. This compares to the period October 2009 to September 2010 when the estimate was an unemployment rate of 16.9%.
Estimates of unemployment differ in different areas of the country due to the effects of sample variability; the demographics of the local area and local labour market conditions.
Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wycombe)
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 changes in financial support for disabled people under universal credit on living standards of that group.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The core design of Universal Credit for claimants with health conditions and disabilities has remained as intended since its introduction in the Welfare Reform Act 2012, and the impacts were analysed then.
DWP continue to evaluate the policy as it is delivered. The Universal Credit Evaluation is a comprehensive and multi-dimensional programme of analysis designed to assess economic, social and behavioural impacts of the Universal Credit experience. Research and analysis is conducted to provide continuous tracking and inform the evaluation and the expansion of Universal Credit, focusing specifically on the effects of Universal Credit on all claimants’ behaviours and outcomes.
We have always said that there will be transitional protection for those with existing premiums who move over to Universal Credit as part of the managed migration process, whose overall Universal Credit entitlement would be less than under the old system, provided that their circumstances remain the same.
Claimants who ‘naturally’ move to Universal Credit will do so because they have had a change of circumstances. In such cases claimants will continue to have their new welfare support entitlement calculated based on the rules of their new benefit.
Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in Wolverhampton North East constituency have applied for advance payments of universal credit.
Answered by Lord Sharma
This information is not available.
However, the latest internal data from November 2017 suggests that 68% of new claims to Universal Credit full service received a new claim advance or benefit transfer advance. This proportion has increased since data was last published in July 2017, which showed that around 50% received a new claim advance or benefit transfer advance.