Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the effect on mutual societies of changes in assessing the relative risk under the Pension Protection Fund levy.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) is an independent body which pays compensation to members of defined benefit occupational pension schemes where the sponsoring employer becomes insolvent and the scheme is unable to cover the accrued pension liabilities. The PPF is funded from a combination of the transferred scheme funds, recoveries from the insolvent employer, investment return and a levy on eligible schemes. Under the Pensions Act 2004, the levy is set by the PPF independently of the Government.
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the level of equality of treatment of different business types under the Pension Protection Fund Levy; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) is an independent body which pays compensation to members of defined benefit occupational pension schemes where the sponsoring employer becomes insolvent and the scheme is unable to cover the accrued pension liabilities. The PPF is funded from a combination of the transferred scheme funds, recoveries from the insolvent employer, investment return and a levy on eligible schemes. Under the Pensions Act 2004, the levy is set by the PPF independently of the Government.
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions his Department has held with (a) Experian and (b) the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) on the equitable treatment of businesses under the PPF levy.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) is an independent body which pays compensation to members of defined benefit occupational pension schemes where the sponsoring employer becomes insolvent and the scheme is unable to cover the accrued pension liabilities. The PPF is funded from a combination of the transferred scheme funds, recoveries from the insolvent employer, investment return and a levy on eligible schemes. Under the Pensions Act 2004, the levy is set by the PPF independently of the Government. The Department has therefore held no discussions on this matter.
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people (a) were eligible for and (b) participated in the Work Programme in each parliamentary constituency in the East of England in each month since October 2012.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
In response to the first part of the question, statistics on the number of people who were eligible for the Work Programme are not available.
Information on those referred to the Work Programme, by parliamentary constituency, is published and can be found at:
http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/WorkProg/tabtool.html
Guidance for users is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance