Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will a publish a list of newspapers in which adverts on the change to the state pension age for women were placed since 2010.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As reported in the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee report; Communication of state pension age changes, published in March 2016, there were more than 600 mentions of state pension age equalisation in the national broadsheet and tabloid press between 1993 and 2006 – an average of just under one per week – on “front pages, News and City sections as well as personal finance pages”, and most concentrated “in 1993-95 and again from 2005-06”.
The Department does not have any records that suggest it has used paid newspaper advertising since 2010 specifically to advertise State Pension age changes.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on what date the first letters notifying recipients of the change in the state pension age for women were sent since 2010.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
People can access the online ‘Check your State Pension’ service through GOV.UK to get a forecast of their State Pension. This includes information about their retirement date, how they may be able to improve the amount of State Pension they are entitled to, as well as providing a view of their National Insurance contribution record. Check Your State Pension service has provided more than ten million online estimates since its introduction in 2016.
The following tables show the number of letters sent out to those people born between 6 April 1950 and 5 April 1960, affected by State Pension age increase in the 1995 and 2011 Pensions Acts. Letter volumes since 2010 can clearly be identified.
The volumes recorded in the second table have been rounded to the nearest 1000 and include mailings undertaken as part of a communications research project, and those sent to men who were also affected by the 2011 Act. It is not possible to provide the volumes sent to women only in relation to the 2011 Act, as we do not hold the information split by gender.
Communication to those affected by the 1995 Act
Customer’s date of birth | Mailing Date | Number of letters sent |
06/04/50 -05/07/50 | April 2009 | 99,985 |
06/07/50 - 05/10/50 | Jul 2009 | 96,356 |
06/10/50 - 05/04/51 | Oct 2009 | 191,465 |
06/04/51- 05/10/51 | Jan 2010 | 196,189 |
06/10/51 – 05/04/52 | Apr 2010 | 188,515 |
06/04/52 – 05/10/52 | Feb 2011 | 196,594 |
06/10/52 – 05/04/53 | Mar 2011 | 191,665 |
Communication to those affected by the 2011 Act
Customer’s date of birth | Mailing Date | Number of letters sent |
06/04/53 – 05/12/53 | Jan 2012 | 275,000 |
06/12/53 – 05/10/54 | Feb 2012 | 646, 000 |
06/10/54 – 05/04/55 | Feb 2012 | 375, 000 |
06/04/55 – 05/04/60 | Oct 2012 – Nov 2013 | 4,475,000 |
To clarify, mailings undertaken as part of the communications research project have been included in the above table.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many letters were sent notifying recipients of the change in the state pension age for women since 2010.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
People can access the online ‘Check your State Pension’ service through GOV.UK to get a forecast of their State Pension. This includes information about their retirement date, how they may be able to improve the amount of State Pension they are entitled to, as well as providing a view of their National Insurance contribution record. Check Your State Pension service has provided more than ten million online estimates since its introduction in 2016.
The following tables show the number of letters sent out to those people born between 6 April 1950 and 5 April 1960, affected by State Pension age increase in the 1995 and 2011 Pensions Acts. Letter volumes since 2010 can clearly be identified.
The volumes recorded in the second table have been rounded to the nearest 1000 and include mailings undertaken as part of a communications research project, and those sent to men who were also affected by the 2011 Act. It is not possible to provide the volumes sent to women only in relation to the 2011 Act, as we do not hold the information split by gender.
Communication to those affected by the 1995 Act
Customer’s date of birth | Mailing Date | Number of letters sent |
06/04/50 -05/07/50 | April 2009 | 99,985 |
06/07/50 - 05/10/50 | Jul 2009 | 96,356 |
06/10/50 - 05/04/51 | Oct 2009 | 191,465 |
06/04/51- 05/10/51 | Jan 2010 | 196,189 |
06/10/51 – 05/04/52 | Apr 2010 | 188,515 |
06/04/52 – 05/10/52 | Feb 2011 | 196,594 |
06/10/52 – 05/04/53 | Mar 2011 | 191,665 |
Communication to those affected by the 2011 Act
Customer’s date of birth | Mailing Date | Number of letters sent |
06/04/53 – 05/12/53 | Jan 2012 | 275,000 |
06/12/53 – 05/10/54 | Feb 2012 | 646, 000 |
06/10/54 – 05/04/55 | Feb 2012 | 375, 000 |
06/04/55 – 05/04/60 | Oct 2012 – Nov 2013 | 4,475,000 |
To clarify, mailings undertaken as part of the communications research project have been included in the above table.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what representations she has received on the HSBC Midland Bank pension clawback; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Successive governments including the Labour government 1997-2010, Coalition and present Conservative government have had a consistent position on this issue. The Department for Work and Pensions receives a number of written representations on the Midland Pension Scheme, which is now part of the HSBC Bank (UK) Pension Scheme, about its integrated pension (or claw-back) policy from individuals and from Members of Parliament writing on their behalf, as it does on many issues.
The Governments position on this issue was set out in response to a written parliamentary question on this subject, which can be accessed here.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 June 2018 to Question 153210 on UNUM, which organisations are authorised to award local contracts under the low value procurement process.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Low Value Provision (LVP) requires that all providers who wish to be considered for providing LVP training must be registered on a central database within ‘Basware’. When providers register on ‘Basware’, they state the training they can deliver and the locations in which they can deliver.
A list of fully registered, part registered and those providers whose registration has expired is held centrally and updated each week. There are currently over 9000 providers on the list. UNUM Provident are not currently listed as a local provider. To identify all organisations could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has any commercial relationship with Unum Provident.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
DWP does not have a national commercial relationship with Unum Provident, however at a local level through the Low Value Procurement process there may be local contracts. To identify these would require a search of local provision and could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost to the public purse has been of Government legal action in respect of the case brought by the Rutherford family on the spare room subsidy.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The case brought by the Rutherford family was heard with six other cases, therefore separate figures for individual cases are not available. The legal costs (to 9 November 2016) of the Supreme Court proceedings for Rutherford and the other joined cases are £206,841.65.
The total legal costs of the High Court proceedings for Rutherford and the Court of Appeal proceedings for “A” and Rutherford are £91,772.28.
These figures include VAT where payable (for example on Counsel’s fees) and disbursements but does not include costs attributable to time spent by Government advisory lawyers, as time spent by such advisory lawyers is not recorded in a manner that allows it to be attributable to individual cases.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the top five reasons were for imposing sanctions on jobseeker's allowance claimants in each year for which data is available.
Answered by Priti Patel
The available information for the number of Jobseeker’s Allowance sanction decisions, by referral reason, is published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started---SuperWEB2.html
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the value was of (a) jobseeker's allowance and (b) employment and support allowance sanctions imposed by his Department in each of the last five years.
Answered by Priti Patel
The Department does not make an estimate of the value of benefit withdrawn as a result of benefit sanctions.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 10 December 2015 to Question 18925, which visits referred to that (a) he and (b) other Ministers in his Department made included a visit to a food bank.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department does not hold the information requested. Ministers have conducted visits to food banks in various capacities, including in their roles as Members of Parliament.