Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
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 lessons learned from the errors in the calculation of payments of employment and support allowance.
Answered by Sarah Newton
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the urgent question on 18 October 2018: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-10-18/debates/3FBBBA7F-57A4-460C-AE64-C58BA2A44F1E/EmploymentAndSupportAllowanceUnderpayments
We have learned a great deal from this exercise. As we have regularly told the House and Select Committees, the culture and mechanisms in the Department for spotting errors have been fundamentally reviewed. As we have discussed at length—this is a matter of public record—people in the Department and stakeholders came forward and pointed out some of the problems with the migration, but the Department responded in the belief that they were a series of one-off errors.
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
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 effectiveness of the procedures her Department has in place to ensure that pension enquiries from members of the public are resolved in a reasonable time period; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
For customers wishing to enquire about future pension provision they can request an on-line State Pension forecast. The majority of forecasts are through ‘Check Your State Pension’ or issued the same day, with any follow up enquiries resolved at the point of enquiry.
DWP has a dedicated telephone line for citizens wishing to enquire about any aspect of State Pension. 95% of all incoming calls are answered in real time, with the remaining 5% withdrawing from call waiting queue without being answered. This may be due to demand or customer choice.
The most recent published survey for period 2016/2017 states that 86% of customers are satisfied with the service offered by DWP. Satisfaction amongst State Pension customers had an overall satisfaction rate of 93%, with 62% stating they are “very satisfied” with the service provided.
Services are continually monitored and assessed both in real time to meet any short term peaks in demand and also reviewed for longer term improvements to ensure the service continues to meet customer service expectation.
There are of course other resources for citizens to enquire about future pension entitlement, for example Pension-wise and Gov.uk.
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department's policy is on advising claimants who are appealing decisions on employment support allowance whether to apply for universal credit.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Following a decision that an Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimant is found well enough for work and is therefore no longer entitled to ESA, the Department provides information on what benefits might instead be available to them. If a claimant lives in an area where Universal Credit has fully rolled out, they will be informed that they can claim Universal Credit, including whilst making an appeal to the original decision.
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will place all reports she received on the practice of HSBC Bank plc in deducting state deduction claw-back from its pensioners in the Library.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Work and Pensions has not received any reports about the practices of HSBC Bank plc on integrated pension schemes (or deducting state deduction clawback). The Department has received a number of written representations regarding integrated pension schemes from individuals and from Members of Parliament writing on their behalf.
There is a detailed explanation on integrated pension schemes in the 15 February 2018 briefing from the House of Commons Library titled ‘Pension integration (or ‘clawback’)’, which was published on the UK Parliament website and is available here:
http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN01121
In addition, the Chair of the Trustees Board of HSBC Bank Pension Trust (UK) Limited has written to the Work and Pension’s Select Committee with more details on its practices. This letter was published on the UK Parliament website on 24 January 2018 and is available here:
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what reports she has received on the practice of HSBC Bank plc to deduct state deduction claw-back from its pensioners.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Work and Pensions has received a number of written representations on the Midland Pension which is now part of the HSBC Bank (UK) Pension Schemes about its integrated pension scheme (or claw-back) policy from individuals and from Members of Parliament writing on their behalf.
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his most recent estimate is of the number of women who will be affected by the acceleration in the state pension age for women born in the 1950s.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Pensions Act 2011 accelerated the equalisation of State Pension age, affecting women born between 6 April 1953 and 5 December 1953, and brought forward the increase in State Pension age from 65 to 66 which affected women and men born between 6 December 1953 and 5 April 1960.
The Pensions Act 2011 Impact Assessment, published in November 2011, included estimates of the number of people affected, based on the latest population projections from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) at the time (the 2010-based principal projections), and stated that 2.6 million women and 2.3 million men in Great Britain would be affected. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/181462/pensions-bill-2011-ia-annexa.pdf
The most recent estimates of the number of people affected are calculated from the 2014-based principal population projections from ONS, which were published in October 2015. Using this data, the latest estimate of the number of women affected by the Pensions Act 2011 is 2.5 million. This figure is for Great Britain and is based on DWP calculations using ONS statistics.
Note that this figure includes approximately 0.1 million women affected by the Pensions Act 2011 who were born between 1 January 1960 and 5 April 1960.
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department became aware of the number of women born in the 1950s who would be affected by the acceleration in state pension age.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Pensions Act 2011 accelerated the equalisation of State Pension age, affecting women born between 6 April 1953 and 5 December 1953, and brought forward the increase in State Pension age from 65 to 66 which affected women and men born between 6 December 1953 and 5 April 1960.
The Pensions Act 2011 Impact Assessment, published in November 2011, included estimates of the number of people affected, based on the latest population projections from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) at the time (the 2010-based principal projections), and stated that 2.6 million women and 2.3 million men in Great Britain would be affected. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/181462/pensions-bill-2011-ia-annexa.pdf
The most recent estimates of the number of people affected are calculated from the 2014-based principal population projections from ONS, which were published in October 2015. Using this data, the latest estimate of the number of women affected by the Pensions Act 2011 is 2.5 million. This figure is for Great Britain and is based on DWP calculations using ONS statistics.
Note that this figure includes approximately 0.1 million women affected by the Pensions Act 2011 who were born between 1 January 1960 and 5 April 1960.
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his policy is on maintaining the triple lock on the state pension.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The government is committed to maintaining the triple lock for the duration of this Parliament. The triple lock has protected the incomes of millions of pensioners. This means that between April 2011 and April 2016 the basic State Pension rose by £570 more in 2016/17 than if it had just been uprated by earnings since April 2011.
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
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 potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on UK pensioners living elsewhere in the EU.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The reciprocal rights and entitlements that will apply following the UK’s exit are subject to the wider negotiation on our future relationship with the EU. We have not yet begun these negotiations, and so it is not possible to set out any positions in advance.
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on uprating the state pension for UK pensioners living in the EU after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The reciprocal rights and entitlements that will apply following the UK’s exit are subject to the wider negotiation on our future relationship with the EU. We have not yet begun these negotiations, and so it is not possible to set out any positions in advance.