Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
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 employment and support allowance and personal independence payment assessments in dealing with issues experienced by those suffering from mental illnesses.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
People claiming Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) will attend the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) to assess how their condition(s) affect their functional capability.
Since ESA was introduced, we have made a number of changes to improve the assessment process for people with mental health conditions. We took forward a number of recommendations from Professor Harrington and Dr Litchfield who independently reviewed the WCA, including redesigning the ESA50 claimant questionnaire to make it clear that evidence from healthcare professionals and advocates is particularly valuable in mental health cases. More information regarding these independent reviews can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/work-capability-assessment-independent-review-year-1
The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment has been designed to reflect a modern understanding of disability, treating all conditions fairly and focussed on people who need it most. PIP also ensures parity between mental and physical conditions. It achieves this by looking at the overall needs of an individual, not which conditions they have. As a consequence of the introduction of PIP there are more people with mental health conditions receiving the higher rates of both PIP components than the DLA equivalents.
We constantly look to review and improve the experience of claiming PIP and committed to two, statutory independent reviews as part of the Welfare Reform Act 2012. The latest of these reviews, led by Paul Gray, was published on 30 March 2017: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-pip-assessment-second-independent-review
We are currently considering the review’s findings and plan to respond later this year.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will bring forward proposals to change the child maintenance calculations from gross to net income to assess the necessary parental contributions required under the new Child Maintenance Service; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Child Maintenance Service calculates maintenance liabilities as a percentage of gross weekly income. Using gross annual income data directly from HMRC enables maintenance calculations to be made more quickly and ensures that the income information is as accurate and up to date as possible. My Department has no plans to change the way that statutory maintenance liabilities are calculated.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
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 additional cost to farmers of purchasing rodent control products as a result of the recent change to the licensing of such products.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
The rodent control products in question contain anticoagulant chemicals which are very harmful to humans and the environment. In particular, when used outdoors, these products pose unacceptable risks to non-target mammals and birds such as barn owls.
The changes are the result of an industry led initiative, the UK Rodenticide Stewardship Regime, introduced to enable the continued use of professional anticoagulant rodenticides in the UK. The body that oversees the operation of the regime is the Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use (CRRU). CRRU membership includes all of the major rodenticide manufacturers, the pest control industry, the farming sector and gamekeepers.
The regime requires those who choose to use professional quantities of rodenticides to demonstrate they are competent to do so, for example through membership of an approved farm assurance scheme or by taking a free self-study course for farmers. As the regime is industry led, the government has not assessed the cost to farmers.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
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 obtaining pension transfer reports when making transfers from defined benefit schemes; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Since April 2015, individuals with defined benefit (DB) pensions are legally required to take independent financial advice from an adviser authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority before transferring or taking their savings as a cash lump sum, if the total value of their benefits is above £30,000.
This requirement reflects the fact that DB pensions offer a high level of security that should not be relinquished without fully understanding the risks of doing so.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of auto-enrolment to pension schemes for people who are casual or seasonal workers; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Automatic enrolment has been a great success with nearly 6.3 million people automatically enrolled into a workplace pension by almost 143,000 employers. We remain on track to complete the roll out of automatic enrolment by 2018.
All workers that fulfil the automatic enrolment eligibility criteria, including seasonal workers, must be enrolled into a workplace pension scheme. To help minimise burden on employers and help manage their business processes, they can choose to postpone automatic enrolment for up to three months for some or all of their staff.
Furthermore, although employers must automatically enrol their eligible workers into a qualifying workplace pension scheme, there is no requirement for workers to save into a pension scheme, unless they wish to do so. Those who genuinely believe it's not in their best interest to save are free to opt out.
The Department has legislative commitments to review some of the specifics of automatic enrolment in 2017. In addition to these areas, we intend to use the opportunity of the Review to cover a broader range of automatic enrolment policy issues and consider how best to build on the success of the programme, which may include the impact on different groups of workers.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
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 adequacy for people with support dogs of their rights physically to access businesses and services.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
This government is working to ensure that employers and businesses realise the value of disabled people as employees and as customers.
Under the Equality Act 2010 businesses that do not normally allow dogs to access to their premises must make reasonable adjustments to allow access for disabled people with assistance dogs. However, it is in the best interests of business to maximise access for all disabled people, including those supported by assistance dogs, to harness a share of the £212 billion spending power of disabled households.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure suitable training and accreditation for support dogs.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Standards for assistance dogs are maintained on the basis of a voluntary regulatory framework. There is no specific legislation for the regulation of assistance dogs.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will extend the eligibility to apply for a registered assistance dog to adults with autism.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
There is no register of assistance dogs. Assistance dogs are provided by charities and private sector organisations some of which are accredited member organisations of Assistance Dogs International or the International Guide Dog Federation. These organisations are responsible for making decisions on who they supply with an assistance dog.
Responsibility for deciding what treatment is best for patients rests with the doctors concerned who are required to exercise their clinical judgement, in consultation with the patient and informed by a patient’s medical history.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department is doing to deliver the full pension entitlement for those people in Northern Ireland who started work at the age of 14.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Following the fundamental reforms of the National Insurance scheme in 1975 the law provided that only paid contributions and credits from the year in which a person reached age 16 to the year before the one in which they reached state pension age should count for the purposes of entitlement to the state pension. The Government has no plans to review the position reached by Parliament and which has been in place for the past 40 years, since 1975.