Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
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 average monthly total amount per person, comprising employee employer and tax relief contributions, paid into pensions under the compulsory workplace pension scheme in 2017.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department does not centrally collate the data requested. However, the Department does publish annual workplace pension statistics for eligible employees, which includes data on annual amounts saved.
The latest data available showed the average annual amount saved per eligible saver (those eligible employees saving into a workplace pension) in the private sector, in 2016, was £4,098.
Our Automatic Enrolment Review 2017: Maintaining the Momentum was published on Monday 18 December, setting a clear direction to build a more robust and inclusive savings culture and specifically in supporting younger generations with the opportunity to save for a more secure retirement. Since 2012, over 9 million people have been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension, although workers are free to opt-out within one month of being put into a workplace pension, and can cease saving at any time. By 2019/20 an estimated extra £20 billion a year will be saved into workplace pensions as a result of automatic enrolment.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of recent trends in the relative proportion of disabled people in the part-time and full-time work forces; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Table 1 shows the proportion of disabled people among the working age population in full-time or part-time employment in quarter 2 of each year from 2013 to 2017. The table shows that the percentage of people in employment who are disabled increased from 10.1% in 2013, to 11.4% in 2017. There has been a larger increase in the proportion of part-time workers who are disabled, rising from 13.0% to 16.3% over the period, an increase of 3.3 percentage points. This compares to an increase in the proportion of full-time workers who are disabled, which has increased from 9.0% to 9.7%, an increase of 0.7 percentage points. Around two thirds of disabled people work full-time, with one third working part-time.
Overall, 17.4% of working age people were disabled in 2017. The employment rate of disabled people increased by 5.6 percentage points between quarter 2 2013, and quarter 2 2017, to 49.2%.
The Government is committed to seeing one million more disabled people in work over the next ten years. The Government recently published Improving Lives: the Future of Work, Health and Disability setting out our ten year strategy for helping disabled people to enter and remain in employment.
Table 1: proportion of working age people who have a disability, UK, April to June 2013 to 2017
| Proportion of total population with a disability | Proportion of people in employment who have a disability | Proportion of people in full-time employment who have a disability | Proportion of people in part-time employment who have a disability |
2013 | 16.5% | 10.1% | 9.0% | 13.0% |
2014 | 16.7% | 10.3% | 8.8% | 14.4% |
2015 | 17.5% | 10.9% | 9.6% | 14.8% |
2016 | 17.4% | 11.2% | 9.6% | 15.8% |
2017 | 17.4% | 11.4% | 9.7% | 16.3% |
Source: Q2 data, Labour Force Survey
Notes on the table:
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make a further review of the credit union expansion project to examine the possibility of additional changes that would allow credit unions to offer additional financial services.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Association of British Credit Unions (ABCUL) is delivering the Credit Union Expansion Project. Three credit unions are using the banking platform delivered through CUEP though none have signed off to business as usual. There is no plan to make changes to the contract.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps he has taken to promote safety for those who visit, work and live on farms.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is responsible for enforcement of health and safety legislation on farms in Great Britain (GB). On 15 September 2017 HSE published its sector action plan for agriculture, setting out actions HSE will take to promote farm safety (http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/strategiesandplans/sector-plans/agriculture.htm).
HSE is currently running a programme of Safety and Health Awareness Days (SHADs) for farmers across GB (http://www.hse.gov.uk/agriculture/diary.htm) and is undertaking a targeted inspection campaign focussing on agriculture as set out in HSE’s 2017/18 Business Plan (http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/strategiesandplans/businessplans/plan1718.pdf).
Working with HSE, Local Authorities carry out visits to open farms and animal visitor attractions to deal with matters of visitor safety in relation to infection risks (http://www.hse.gov.uk/lau/activities.pdf).
HSE also works closely with industry stakeholders, through GB’s Farm Safety Partnerships, to promote and support their activities to improve health and safety in farming.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support his Department offers to homeless ex-service personnel to ensure that they receive adequate training for sustainable employment.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
DWP’s priority is to ensure homeless people get the appropriate support they need to move into work so they can succeed and rebuild their lives.
The Government recognises that homeless veterans may face particular challenges in getting into employment. Support provided by DWP in Great Britain complements that offered by the Career Transition Partnership and other organisations supporting veterans.
The homeless and ex-HM Armed Forces personnel form two of the specified priority groups for the forthcoming Work and Health Programme. This allows for early voluntary entry to the programme at the most appropriate time in their claim for those who would benefit from specialist employment support to find work. In addition, DWP provides a range of support to help homeless people into work. This includes access to the Jobcentre Plus employment offer with individual tailoring. DWP’s National Employer and Partnership Team also work with national employer and partner organisations to help ex-HM Armed Forces Service leavers into employment.
The Department also recognises as a priority that claimants who have recently become homeless will need time to try and resolve their accommodation issues, and so jobseeking requirements can temporarily be put on hold whilst homeless claimants find accommodation and claimants directed to concentrate on seeking additional support through various homeless organisations instead; and where sanctions are applied they can access hardship payments immediately. The removal of housing support for 18-21 year olds policy includes a wide-ranging set of exemptions which means homeless people will not be affected.
Underpinning DWP’s support for veterans and serving personnel and their families is our network of Armed Forces Champions in each Jobcentre Plus district who support work coaches in understanding the range of support available to Service leavers and ensure they are actively signposted to appropriate organisations.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the mitigations to the administration of universal credit negotiated by the former Department of Social Development in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Universal Credit payments are designed to mirror the world of work, with monthly payments reflecting the way many working people are paid. We believe that the UC model of monthly paid and claimants taking responsibility for budgeting their own income is the most effective way of getting people back to work.
Alternative Payment Arrangements (APA) already exist in Universal Credit to help claimants who have difficulty with monthly budgeting to pay their rent or receive their payments more frequently. These are delivered in conjunction with DWP staff who maintain an on-going conversation with claimants about their financial capability and will refer them for personal budgeting support with the goal of preventing the need for an APA or removing it once in place to ensure financial independence is achieved. Research shows that APA are effective and well-targeted, and over time people are able to manage their monthly budget and clear any arrears.
While we believe that neither the Northern Ireland model (where, by default, claimants are given more frequent payments and their rent paid direct to landlords and have to opt out), nor the Scotland model (where the implementation of Scottish flexibilities is wholly the claimant’s choice and does not require a DWP decision), are the most effective models to deliver the change intended by Welfare Reform or to deliver the employment outcomes and economic benefits promised by Universal Credit, we are working, with the Devolved Administrations to constructively and positively enact these variations in the spirit of the devolution arrangements.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to support people in automatic enrolment pension schemes to make additional voluntary contributions to their pensions.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Automatic enrolment was introduced to help people save for their retirement, particularly lower earners and women who were poorly served by existing provision
Over the next two years contribution levels will be increasing gradually; for an individual, these are currently at 1 per cent, rising to 3 per cent in April 2018 and 5 per cent in April 2019. Employers and individuals can already pay in more than the legal minimum should they wish, and some already do.
We are currently reviewing automatic enrolment to build on its success to date; this includes looking at how individuals can be helped to have a stronger sense of personal ownership of their workplace pensions, and be better enabled to maximise retirement savings.
The review work is led by a DWP team and supported by an external advisory group. We will report to Parliament by the end of 2017.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made in the roll-out of the Youth Obligation programme for those claiming universal credit.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
We introduced the Youth Obligation, as planned, on 26 April 2017 into the 49 jobcentres operating the Universal Credit full service at the time. 18-21 year olds who make a new claim to Universal Credit full service and are in the All Work Related Requirements Conditionality group will receive intensive work-focused Youth Obligation support from the first day of their claim.
We are rolling out Youth Obligation at the same time as we deliver the Universal Credit Full Service into our jobcentres. The Youth Obligation is now available in 124 Jobcentres.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the change was in annual social security payments in the UK between 2012 and the projected annual cost by 31 March 2017.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The available information is in the table below.
The table shows DWP Annually Managed Expenditure within the current definition of social security payments for Great Britain. Expenditure in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive.
Expenditure £bn | 2012/13 | 2016/17 | Change | Change |
| Outturn | Forecast | £bn | % |
Nominal | 159.9 | 172.7 | 12.7 | 8.0% |
Real Terms (2016/17 prices) | 169.4 | 172.7 | 3.3 | 1.9% |
Figures are based on Budget 2017 expenditure as published by the Office for Budget Responsibility on 8 March 2017.
Council Tax Benefit, which was part of DWP’s expenditure in 2012/13, has been excluded from the figures to aid comparison.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps are being taken to ensure that more women participate in pension schemes and company share ownerships.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
Automatic enrolment was designed to help more people save for their retirement, including groups who historically have been less likely to save, such as women and lower earners. The policy is working, with over 7.3 million people enrolled by the end of January 2017. Around two thirds of women are in the eligible target population for automatic enrolment and 10 million workers are estimated to be newly saving or saving more as a result of Automatic Enrolment by 2018, of which 3.6 million are women.
Since the introduction of automatic enrolment, the private sector has seen the largest increases in participation in workplace pensions and by 2014 there was no gender gap in participation. As of 2015 female participation in the private sector had actually risen to a slightly higher level of 70 per cent compared to 69 per cent for male eligible employees. This represents a 30 percentage point increase for women from 2012 (whilst participation for men has increased by 26 percentage points) continuing the upward trend since the introduction of automatic enrolment.
In addition, the Government’s decision to freeze the value of the automatic enrolment earnings trigger at £10,000 in 2017/18 is estimated to result in around 70,000 extra people being brought into automatic enrolment of whom around 50,000 (75 per cent) are women.
As part of my Department’s review of automatic enrolment, which we have embarked on this year, we will look at how we can build on its success so that it continues to meet the needs of individual savers, including women. In addition to considering those not currently benefitting from the policy, this review will look at strengthening the evidence base concerning future contributions, and how we can maximise engagement with work place pension saving.
The government believes that employee share ownership in its various forms can help drive productivity and increase employee engagement. To support employee share ownership the government provides four tax-advantaged employee share schemes, which provide certain tax benefits for individuals acquiring shares in the company they work for.