Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to encourage people to save for their retirement.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Automatic enrolment has reversed the decline in workplace pension saving. Latest figures show that over 10 million workers have been automatically enrolled into workplace pension by more than 1.5 million employers. In 2018, eligible employees saved a total of £90.4 billion into their workplace pensions.
In 2018, 87% of all eligible workers in Great Britain were members of a workplace pension scheme, this is a 32 percentage point increase compared with 2012, when automatic enrolment was introduced. The greatest increases have been among those who have historically had least access to workplace pensions, such as women, younger people and lower earners. In 2018, workplace pension participation levels increased to 85% for eligible male and female workers in the private sector; this represented a 45 percentage point increase among eligible women compared to 2012. For eligible 22-29-year-old workers in the private sector workplace pension participation increased to 84% – up from 24% in 2012.
With record numbers of people saving for retirement, it’s more important than ever that people understand their pensions and prepare for financial security in later life.
Government is committed to facilitating industry to make pension dashboards a reality and that is why we will compel pension schemes to make consumers data available to them via dashboards, when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the effect of universal credit on the level of rent arrears owed to Scottish local authorities; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has not made an assessment of this nature.
Caution should be exercised when considering any assessment of arrears derived from local authority level data which seeks to compare the legacy and Universal Credit welfare systems. This is because they do not compare groups with the same characteristics; typically, the legacy benefit group have been on benefits for some time, where the arrears may be under long-term management. The Universal Credit group, on the other hand, are often new to benefits, and are likely to have experienced a change in their circumstances – for example, a debt-creating event like losing a job or separation. Any arrears for this group will not have been under management and had time to clear.
The initial analytical work we have carried out with a housing provider suggests that many tenants are arriving on Universal Credit with pre-existing rent arrears, that their arrears tend to increase prior to making a claim for Universal Credit, and that Universal Credit actually appears to be helping to clear arrears over time. We are currently extending this analysis to include a number of other housing providers. It will be published when completed. Furthermore, according to latest figures in November 2018 about 8 per cent of social rented households were on Universal Credit; therefore, it is difficult to see how a national trend can be attributed to Universal Credit.
We have, however, responded to concerns in this area by putting a number of safeguards in place, such as 100% advances repayable over 12 months, increasing to 16 months in October 2021; a two-week Transition to Universal Credit Housing Payment; a new Help to Claim service to assist people to make their claim more easily; and Managed Payment to Landlord Arrangements, which allow for payments direct to the landlord if the tenant is likely to have difficulty in managing their rent payments, is unlikely to pay their rent or is in rent arrears equivalent to two months.
Furthermore, in Scotland, the Department delivers Universal Credit Scottish choices on behalf of the Scottish Government, providing the option of Universal Credit being paid twice a month rather than monthly, and having Universal Credit housing element being paid directly to landlords.
Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
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 the effect of the benefits freeze on the incomes of households with children.
Answered by Will Quince
An Impact Assessment of the benefit freeze was published in 2015, this is available in the link below.
https://www.parliament.uk/documents/impact-assessments/IA15-006C.pdf
The Welfare Reforms such as the benefit freeze were designed to incentivise parents to choose to move into and progress in work. Evidence shows that work is the best route out of poverty. Children in workless households are five time more likely to be in poverty than those in households where all adults were working. Since 2007/08, the incomes of the poorest fifth have increased by over £850 above inflation, whereas the incomes of the richest fifth have increased by around £650.
Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
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 the effect of the sanctions system on levels of foodbank use among claimants.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) does not keep official statistics on foodback use as there are many reasons why people use foodbanks.
Nevertheless, as a measured safeguard The Department offers financial support to those claimants who have been sanctioned. We have a well-established system of hardship payments for claimants who cannot meet their immediate and most essential needs, including accommodation, heating, food and hygiene, as a result of their sanction.