Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the scope of Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations to include voluntary organisations.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations 2004 require persons providing facilities for adventure activities in return for payment to hold a licence granted by the licensing authority in accordance with the regulations. Persons are not required to hold a licence where facilities are provided by a voluntary association to its members or members of other voluntary associations by agreement between the associations. Since 2007 the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has been the licensing authority for the regulations.
In 2018 HSE consulted stakeholders as part of a review of the delivery and scope of adventure activity licensing. In preparation for that consultation HSE considered and decided against extending licensing to include exempt persons such as voluntary organisations. This was on the basis that:
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
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 accessibility of information on a deceased partner’s pension for unmarried couples where the couple had (a) remained together and (b) recently separated prior to the death of the partner.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
There has been no recent assessment of the accessibility of information on a deceased partner’s State Pension for unmarried couples, where the couple had either remained together or recently separated prior to the death of the partner.
Private pensions rights to survivor benefits in private occupational pensions are many and varied, and will depend on factors such as scheme rules, and choices made by the scheme member.
General information on survivor benefits for unmarried couples is available from Money Helper and delivered by the Money and Pensions Service: https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
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 a bereaved unmarried couple's ability to access a deceased partner’s workplace pension following a separation on grounds of domestic abuse.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has recently looked at cohabiting couples’ rights in relation to their deceased partner’s occupational pension more widely, in response to recommendation 5 of the Women and Equalities Select Committee’s Second Report into Cohabiting Couples.
Our assessment was published on pages 5 and 6 of The rights of cohabiting partners: Government response to the Committee’s Second Report (parliament.uk) on 1st November 2022. A Letter from the Minister for Pensions on the rights of cohabiting partners to the Chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee, published on 18th July this year outlined my Department’s most recent work in this area.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
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 adequacy of benefit levels for self-employed people on sick leave claiming New Style Employment and Support Allowance compared to employed individuals claiming Statutory Sick Pay.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Depending on their specific circumstances, self-employed people may be eligible for financial support through new style Employment and Support Allowance.
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is both administered and paid entirely by employers at a rate of £109.40 per week. It provides a measure of earnings replacement to eligible employees who are sick and incapable of work, and is payable from the fourth qualifying day of sickness absence.
SSP is just one part of our wider Government offer to support people in times of need. Where an individual’s income is reduced, and they have a health condition or disability which restricts the amount of work they can do, or prevents them from working altogether and they require further financial support, they may be able to claim Universal Credit or new style Employment and Support Allowance, where they meet the entitlement criteria. The level of entitlement would be determined by the individual’s circumstances.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
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 accessibility of the process for self-employed people on sick leave to claim New Style Employment and Support Allowance.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
A self-employed person can make a new claim for new style ESA using the online application form or, where they are unable to claim online, by calling the Jobcentre Plus new claims helpline. In order to qualify, they will need to satisfy the basic entitlement and National Insurance contribution conditions.
Self-employed customers follow the standard customer journey. The online claim process gathers employment information and asks them to identify whether they are (or were) employed or self-employed. Customers identifying as self-employed are assessed by a decision maker to determine their eligibility to claim ESA based on the claim data. If the decision maker requires further information, they contact the customer to obtain relevant details. The claim is then processed as per the standard claim process and payment is issued if appropriate.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
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 of the overall financial support available for self-employed people (a) over and (b) under 25 who are on sick leave.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
No assessment has been made.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has had discussions with people with Multiple Sclerosis on the adequacy of (a) informal observations, (b) the 50 percent rule and (c) the 20-meter rule for determining Personal Independence Payment awards.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was established in collaboration with a wide range of experts and following a comprehensive public consultation between 2010-2012 with stakeholders, including the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
As referenced in my responses on 21 April 2023, UIN181230, and 24 April 2023, UIN181064:
More recently the department ran a series of events with charities (including the MS Society on 30 September 2020) which helped to shape Future Support: The Health and Disability Green Paper.
Many of the changes set out in Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper aim to improve our assessment of fluctuating conditions, such as the way we use medical evidence, and developing the capability of our assessors. We will also explore options for introducing a new way of gathering evidence of fluctuation in a person’s condition before their assessment.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
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 equitability between married and unmarried bereaved couples' ability to access their deceased partner's pension.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In defined benefit occupational pension schemes, there are no statutory requirements for pension schemes to provide any survivor benefits unless the scheme was contracted out of the additional State Pension. Surviving partners of members do not automatically receive benefits when the member dies. These survivor benefits are a matter for the scheme rules and the sponsoring employer, subject to HMRC tax restrictions. Some schemes may choose to provide survivor benefits for those who are not in a legal partnership, but they are not required to. Where a scheme was contracted out, the pension must include a minimum level of benefits for certain widows, widowers and surviving civil partners, reflecting the provisions in the additional State Pension.
The new State Pension, applicable to those who reach State Pension age from 6 April 2016, is based on an individual’s own National Insurance contributions only, although there are transitional rules that mean an individual can inherit State Pension in some circumstances, where there was a legal marriage or civil partnership before 6 April 2016.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of the devolution of welfare powers to Wales to permit the Welsh Government to provide additional support for households amid the cost of living crisis.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Wales Act 2017 sets a reserved powers model, making clear that social security, pensions and child maintenance remain reserved to UK Parliament. This position is unchanged since devolution began. The UK Government does not intend to devolve reserved social security powers to the Welsh Government. It has, however, used them to make provision for the £650 Cost of Living Payment (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) for around 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits; the one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 currently being paid to 6 million eligible people; and the extra one-off £300 Winter Fuel Payment this year to be paid to over 8 million pensioner households across the UK.
The UK Government has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills through the new “Energy Price Guarantee”, which will mean a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years from 1 October. This will save the average household in Great Britain at least £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost of living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme and the cost of living payments. It also includes an additional £500 million from October to help households across the UK with the cost of essentials. In England, £421 million is being provided to extend the Household Support Fund, a discretionary scheme run by Upper Tier Local Authorities, from October 2022 – March 2023. The Welsh Government has been allocated its share of this funding through the Barnett Formula.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the real-terms change in the value of pension payments that were not index linked for Allied Steel and Wire pensioners under the FAS in each of the last five years as a result of inflation.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information required to carry out each assessment is not readily available and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs. The Secretary of State has therefore made no such assessment and does not intend to do so at this stage.