Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the estimated value is of currently outstanding employer contributions to workplace pension schemes.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Automatic Enrolment has transformed workplace pension saving, with over 10 million employees enrolled and over 1.9 million employers meeting their duties. The Pensions Regulator is responsible for maximising employer compliance with the automatic enrolment duties, using a risk-based approach to deter, prevent, or address non-compliance.
Employers must provide information to The Regulator to show they are meeting their automatic enrolment duties, which involves completing a declaration of compliance. The Regulator publishes regular information about employers who have complied with their duties, here Automatic enrolment declaration of compliance report | The Pensions Regulator. The Regulator also publishes data on how often they have used their regulatory powers, here Enforcement bulletins | The Pensions Regulator which shows that in the 12 months to the end of June 2021 The Regulator issued 60,870 Compliance Notices.
Pension scheme trustees and managers have the responsibility for monitoring, collecting and recovering contributions to their schemes in accordance with The Pensions Regulator’s code of practice. Pension schemes are required to report to The Pensions Regulator where there has been a material failure in the payment of contributions by employers.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in the last 12 months how many employers who have autoenrolment pension responsibilities have failed to enrol all eligible employees.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Automatic Enrolment has transformed workplace pension saving, with over 10 million employees enrolled and over 1.9 million employers meeting their duties. The Pensions Regulator is responsible for maximising employer compliance with the automatic enrolment duties, using a risk-based approach to deter, prevent, or address non-compliance.
Employers must provide information to The Regulator to show they are meeting their automatic enrolment duties, which involves completing a declaration of compliance. The Regulator publishes regular information about employers who have complied with their duties, here Automatic enrolment declaration of compliance report | The Pensions Regulator. The Regulator also publishes data on how often they have used their regulatory powers, here Enforcement bulletins | The Pensions Regulator which shows that in the 12 months to the end of June 2021 The Regulator issued 60,870 Compliance Notices.
Pension scheme trustees and managers have the responsibility for monitoring, collecting and recovering contributions to their schemes in accordance with The Pensions Regulator’s code of practice. Pension schemes are required to report to The Pensions Regulator where there has been a material failure in the payment of contributions by employers.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to prevent households on lower incomes falling into food poverty as a result of recent rises in the price of basic foodstuff.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This Government is wholly committed to supporting low-income families, including through spending over £110 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2021/22 and by increasing the National Living Wage by 6.6% to £9.50 from April 2022. We take the issue of food security seriously, which is why we added internationally used food security questions to the Family Resources Survey in 2019/20 and published the data in March last year.
With the success of the vaccine rollout and record job vacancies, our focus now is on continuing to support people into and to progress in work. Our multi-billion-pound Plan for Jobs, which has recently been expanded by £500 million, will help people across the UK to find work and to boost their wages and prospects. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty.
In addition, Universal Credit recipients in work are now benefitting from a reduction in the Universal Credit taper rate from 63% to 55%, while eligible in-work claimants can also benefit from changes to the Work Allowance. These measures represent, for the lowest paid in society, an effective tax cut of around £2.2 Billion in 2022-23, and are now benefitting almost two million of the lowest paid workers by £1000 a year on average.
We recognise that some people may require extra support over the winter, which is why vulnerable households across the country are now able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials. The Household Support Fund provides £421 million to help vulnerable people in England with the cost of food, utilities and wider essentials. The Barnett Formula applies in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million.
To support low income families further we have increased the value of Healthy Start Food Vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25, helping eligible low income households buy basic foods like milk, fruit and vitamins, and we are also investing over £200m a year from 2022 to continue our Holiday Activities and Food programme which is already providing enriching activities and healthy meals to children in all English Local Authorities.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to help prevent people in insecure work experiencing poverty during winter 2021-22.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This Government is wholly committed to supporting people on low incomes and we continue to do so through many measures, including through spending over £110 billion in 2021/22 on welfare support for people of working age in 2021/22 who meet the relevant eligibility conditions.
With the success of the vaccine rollout and record job vacancies, our long-term focus remains on continuing to support people into work and to help those in work to progress out of low pay. Our multi-billion-pound Plan for Jobs, which has recently been expanded by £500 million, will help people across the UK to find work and to boost their wages and prospects. We have doubled the number of work coaches to 27,000 to provide people with the tailored support they need to move into work.
Through the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the National Living Wage (NLW) the Government protects the lowest paid within our society. The National Living Wage increased by 2.2% to £8.91 from April 2021 - the equivalent of more than £345 extra per year for someone working full-time. At Autumn Budget 2021, we announced a further increase of 6.6% to £9.50 for over 23s from April 2022, as well as reinforcing our commitment for the National Living Wage to reach two-thirds of median earnings by 2024, provided economic conditions allow.
Universal Credit supports people in and out of work and working claimants will now benefit from a reduction in the Universal Credit taper rate from 63% to 55%; and the increase in the work allowance by £500 per year means that 1.9m working households will be able to keep substantially more of what they earn. These measures effectively represent a tax cut worth around £2.2bn a year in 2022-23 for the lowest paid in society and will benefit almost two million of the lowest paid workers by £1000 a year on average.
We recognise that some people may require extra support over the winter as we enter the final stages of recovery, which is why vulnerable households across the country are able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials. The Household Support Fund provides £421 million to help vulnerable people in England with the cost of food, utilities and wider essentials. The Barnett Formula applies in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million.
To support low income families further we have increased the value of Healthy Start Food Vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25, helping eligible low income households buy basic foods like milk, fruit and vitamins, and we are also investing over £200m a year from 2022 to continue our Holiday Activities and Food programme which is already providing enriching activities and healthy meals to children in all English LAs.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to prevent families falling into poverty as a result of rising inflation above wage growth.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This Government is wholly committed to supporting people on low incomes and we continue to do so through many measures, including through spending over £110 billion in 2021/22 on welfare support for people of working age in 2021/22 who meet the relevant eligibility conditions.
With the success of the vaccine rollout and record job vacancies, our long-term focus remains on continuing to support people into work and to help those in work to progress out of low pay. Our multi-billion-pound Plan for Jobs, which has recently been expanded by £500 million, will help people across the UK to find work and to boost their wages and prospects. We have doubled the number of work coaches to 27,000 to provide people with the tailored support they need to move into work.
Through the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the National Living Wage (NLW) the Government protects the lowest paid within our society. The National Living Wage increased by 2.2% to £8.91 from April 2021 - the equivalent of more than £345 extra per year for someone working full-time. At Autumn Budget 2021, we announced a further increase of 6.6% to £9.50 for over 23s from April 2022, as well as reinforcing our commitment for the National Living Wage to reach two-thirds of median earnings by 2024, provided economic conditions allow.
Universal Credit supports people in and out of work and working claimants will now benefit from a reduction in the Universal Credit taper rate from 63% to 55%; and the increase in the work allowance by £500 per year means that 1.9m working households will be able to keep substantially more of what they earn. These measures effectively represent a tax cut worth around £2.2bn a year in 2022-23 for the lowest paid in society and will benefit almost two million of the lowest paid workers by £1000 a year on average.
We recognise that some people may require extra support over the winter as we enter the final stages of recovery, which is why vulnerable households across the country are able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials. The Household Support Fund provides £421 million to help vulnerable people in England with the cost of food, utilities and wider essentials. The Barnett Formula applies in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million.
To support low income families further we have increased the value of Healthy Start Food Vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25, helping eligible low income households buy basic foods like milk, fruit and vitamins, and we are also investing over £200m a year from 2022 to continue our Holiday Activities and Food programme which is already providing enriching activities and healthy meals to children in all English LAs.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made on the impact of the removal of the £20 uplift to the standard allowance of universal credit on regional inequalities.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
No such assessment has been made of the impact on regional inequalities.
The Chancellor announced a temporary six-month extension to the £20 per week uplift at the Budget on 3 March to support households affected by the economic shock of Covid-19. Universal Credit has provided a vital safety net for six million people during the pandemic, and the temporary uplift was part of a COVID support package worth a total of £407 billion in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
There have been significant positive developments in the public health situation since the uplift was first introduced. With the success of the vaccine rollout and record job vacancies, it is right that our focus is on helping people back into work.
Through our Plan for Jobs, we are targeting tailored support schemes of people of all ages to help them prepare for, get into and progress in work. These include: Kickstart, delivering tens of thousands of six-month work placements for Universal Credit claimants aged 16-24 at risk of unemployment; we have also recruited an additional 13,500 work coaches to provide more intensive support to find a job; and introduced Restart which provides 12 months’ intensive employment support to Universal Credit claimants who are unemployed for a year. Our Plan for Jobs interventions will support more than two million people
We recognise that some people continue to require extra support, which is why we have introduced a £421 million Household Support Fund to help vulnerable people in England with essential household costs over the winter as the economy recovers. The Barnett Formula will apply in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce food insecurity.
Answered by Will Quince
This Government is wholly committed to tackling poverty in all its forms. Throughout the pandemic, our priority has been to protect incomes by spending £407 billion last year to protect jobs, keep businesses afloat and help families get by. This includes spending an additional £7.4billion to strengthen the welfare system for those most in need, taking our total expenditure on welfare support for people of working age to an estimated £112 billion in 2020/21. In December 2020 we introduced our Covid Winter Grant Scheme providing funding to Local Authorities in England to enable them to support people with food and essential utility bills during the coldest months. It will now run until June as the Covid Local Support Grant, with a total investment of £269m.
The Department for Work and Pensions has recently published new data from the Family Resources Survey on household food security, giving us a better understanding of who is most at risk and underlining how seriously we take the issue of food insecurity. The new data shows that 92% of households are food secure.
As the economy recovers, our ambition is to help people move into and progress in work as quickly as possible based on clear evidence about the importance of employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty. Our Plan for Jobs is already delivering for people of all ages right across the country and includes investing over £7 billion on new schemes such as the £2 billion Kickstart Scheme, the Restart Scheme and our Job Entry Targeted Support Scheme.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the finding in the report by the Trussell Trust entitled The State of Hunger, published in 2019, that 62 per cent of food bank users were disabled, what steps she is taking to reduce poverty among disabled people.
Answered by Will Quince
This Government is wholly committed to tackling poverty. Throughout the pandemic, our priority has been to support the most vulnerable including through spending an additional £7.4billion to strengthen the welfare system, taking our total expenditure on welfare support for people of working age to an estimated £112 billion in 2020/21. In December 2020 we introduced our Covid Winter Grant Scheme providing funding to Local Authorities in England to enable them to support people with food and essential utility bills during the coldest months. It will now run to the 20th June as the Covid Local Support Grant, with a total investment of £269m.
We will spend over £57 billion during 2021/22 on benefits to support disabled people and people with health conditions, including but not limited to new style Employment and Support Allowance, Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment. Benefits to meet the additional costs of disability were excluded from the benefit freeze which was in place from 2016 to 2020 and during that period were uprated in line with prices.
There is clear evidence about the importance of employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty. The Government recognises the important economic contribution of disabled people in the labour market and in 2017 we set a goal to see one million more disabled people in work by 2027. DWP delivers a range of programmes to support disabled people, to stay in or move into work. These include the Work and Health Programme, Intensive Personalised Employment Support, Access to Work, Disability Confident and initiatives in partnership with the health system, including Employment Advice in NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services and Individual Placement and Support.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she made of the potential merits of suspending the under-occupancy charge during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Will Quince
No assessment has been made.
The policy already allows for the provision of an additional bedroom in certain circumstances, such as to support the needs of disabled people, as well as exempting households in receipt of pension age Housing Benefit.
If a claimant’s ability to mitigate any shortfall between their housing support and rent has changed as a result of Covid-19, Discretionary Housing Payments can be considered by their local authority. We have allocated a further £140 million for Discretionary Housing Payments for 2021/22 in England and Wales.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many small businesses have benefited from the Kickstart scheme to date.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of the 4th March 2021, there have been over 900 unique gateway applications approved and 1,000 unique employer bids accepted on the Kickstart Scheme.
We are unable to provide the number of small businesses that have benefitted from the Kickstart Scheme at present as many of these SME’s will have applied through a Gateway organisation.
We have responded to feedback to make the scheme as accessible as possible for small businesses, most recently removing the 30 threshold for the number of jobs to make a direct application.