Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of social security benefit claimants were EU nationals in each month for which data is available since February 2018.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of social security benefit claims were closed as a result of the claimant having failed a habitual residence test in each month for which data is available since March 2018.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The table below gives the number of UC claim closures due to a claimant failing the Habitual Residence Test (HRT) and the monthly percentage share of all UC claim declarations on a monthly basis from March 2018 to November 2020.
The Department only holds the requested information for Habitual Residence Tests (HRT) completed by Universal Credit (UC) full service claimants for the time period requested.
| Number of closures due to failing HRT | Percentage of UC Claims in month |
Mar-18 | 1,340 | 1.3% |
Apr-18 | 1,470 | 1.4% |
May-18 | 1,570 | 1.4% |
Jun-18 | 1,920 | 1.4% |
Jul-18 | 2,400 | 1.4% |
Aug-18 | 2,400 | 1.3% |
Sep-18 | 2,410 | 1.3% |
Oct-18 | 3,030 | 1.3% |
Nov-18 | 3,170 | 1.3% |
Dec-18 | 2,770 | 1.4% |
Jan-19 | 4,170 | 1.4% |
Feb-19 | 4,030 | 1.5% |
Mar-19 | 4,140 | 1.5% |
Apr-19 | 3,500 | 1.3% |
May-19 | 3,500 | 1.2% |
Jun-19 | 3,310 | 1.1% |
Jul-19 | 3,630 | 1.1% |
Aug-19 | 3,150 | 1.0% |
Sep-19 | 3,080 | 0.9% |
Oct-19 | 3,470 | 1.2% |
Nov-19 | 3,150 | 1.2% |
Dec-19 | 2,710 | 1.3% |
Jan-20 | 3,610 | 1.1% |
Feb-20 | 3,010 | 1.2% |
Mar-20 | 8,240 | 0.8% |
Apr-20 | 11,750 | 1.3% |
May-20 | 11,700 | 2.4% |
Jun-20 | 8,220 | 2.5% |
Jul-20 | 7,460 | 2.5% |
Aug-20 | 6,710 | 2.5% |
Sep-20 | 9,210 | 2.9% |
Oct-20 | 11,150 | 3.6% |
Nov-20 | 7,300 | 2.3% |
Notes:
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of social security benefit claimants required a habitual residence test in each month for which data is available since March 2018.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The table below gives the total number of Habitual Residence Tests (HRT) completed by Universal Credit (UC) full service claimants since March 2018, the total number of UC claims that were declared in the same months, and the proportion of these UC claims where a HRT was completed.
The Department only holds information on the Habitual Residence Tests (HRT) completed by Universal Credit (UC) full service claimants for the time period requested.
Declared Date | Total HRTs completed | Claims made to UC | Proportion of UC claims where a HRT was completed |
Mar-18 | 13,900 | 102,100 | 14% |
Apr-18 | 14,200 | 103,500 | 14% |
May-18 | 15,300 | 108,200 | 14% |
Jun-18 | 16,600 | 127,100 | 13% |
Jul-18 | 21,100 | 163,300 | 13% |
Aug-18 | 22,100 | 167,200 | 13% |
Sep-18 | 24,600 | 173,800 | 14% |
Oct-18 | 29,600 | 204,700 | 14% |
Nov-18 | 31,000 | 211,400 | 15% |
Dec-18 | 26,900 | 168,800 | 16% |
Jan-19 | 40,800 | 275,800 | 15% |
Feb-19 | 34,600 | 243,100 | 14% |
Mar-19 | 35,700 | 253,300 | 14% |
Apr-19 | 32,400 | 236,000 | 14% |
May-19 | 34,600 | 245,700 | 14% |
Jun-19 | 32,100 | 240,000 | 13% |
Jul-19 | 35,300 | 269,100 | 13% |
Aug-19 | 31,500 | 245,500 | 13% |
Sep-19 | 36,000 | 258,100 | 14% |
Oct-19 | 37,400 | 236,800 | 16% |
Nov-19 | 32,200 | 214,600 | 15% |
Dec-19 | 26,500 | 166,200 | 16% |
Jan-20 | 38,100 | 259,300 | 15% |
Feb-20 | 32,100 | 208,800 | 15% |
Mar-20 | 165,600 | 1,209,100 | 14% |
Apr-20 | 173,400 | 985,800 | 18% |
May-20 | 93,400 | 441,000 | 21% |
Jun-20 | 59,700 | 283,800 | 21% |
Jul-20 | 58,800 | 262,400 | 22% |
Aug-20 | 55,500 | 243,600 | 23% |
Table Notes:
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will include online activity in the ban on pensions cold calling.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This government is committed to safeguarding consumer savings. DWP, and other departments, have introduced measures that assist all savers to understand their choices and the possible risks of the choices they make, along with legislation to protect those most vulnerable to scams. This includes the ban on cold calling, which was introduced January 2019. Further action is being taken legislatively and operationally.
To help protect people from pension scams, clause 125 in the Pension Schemes Bill is being introduced, following extensive consultation and debate. It will allow government to introduce measures to limit the statutory right to transfer.
The Bill will ensure that a range of consumer protections will apply to all pension savers, regardless of what avenue, such as online or via social media, is used by potential scammers to contact them with regards to their pension savings. The powers in this Bill will enable government in certain circumstances (red flags) to remove the statutory right to transfer. The Government is working cross department and with industry & regulators to determine red flags including the use of online channels to make contact with pension savers.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), plays a key role in protecting the UK from cybercrime and fraud. The NCSC’s Active Cyber Defence (ACD) programme tackles cyber-attacks in an automated and scalable way, to improve national resilience. This includes a takedown service which searches for and identifies malicious websites. Where found, it removes them at source so they cannot cause further harm to the public.
To complement the ACD programme, the NCSC recently launched the Suspicious Email Reporting Service, which allows the public to flag suspicious emails to the NCSC simply by forwarding them to report@phishing.gov.uk. They are then analysed and malicious content is taken down where found.
The Government continues to raise public awareness of scams through ongoing communications directly from DWP and with other organisations. Joint and independent communications from the FCA and tPR spelling out the dangers, what to watch out for and giving clarity to trustees and providers on the boundaries between guidance and advice have been issued since April this year (https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions(opens in a new tab)). Prior to Covid-19 the FCA and tPR conducted regular campaigns, through the ScamSmart branding, to raise awareness of pension scams and what to watch out for, these have been deemed very successful, over 222,000 visited the ScamSmart website to find out how to identify a scam scheme as a result of the most recent pre Covid campaign, July – November 2019.
DWP continues to communicate regularly on social media to set out the warning signs of a scam and has made multiple posts referencing Pension Scams and #ScamSmart in total across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in the period March to September 2020.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to ensure that the ban on pensions cold calling includes recipients of calls who have an existing relationship with the scam caller.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This government is committed to safeguarding consumer savings. DWP, and other departments, have introduced measures that assist all savers to understand their choices and the possible risks of the choices they make, along with legislation to protect those most vulnerable to scams. This includes the ban on cold calling, which was introduced January 2019. Further action is being taken legislatively and operationally.
To help protect people from pension scams, clause 125 in the Pension Schemes Bill is being introduced, following extensive consultation and debate. It will allow government to introduce measures to limit the statutory right to transfer.
The Bill will ensure that a range of consumer protections will apply to all pension savers, regardless of what avenue, such as online or via social media, is used by potential scammers to contact them with regards to their pension savings. The powers in this Bill will enable government in certain circumstances (red flags) to remove the statutory right to transfer. The Government is working cross department and with industry & regulators to determine red flags including the use of online channels to make contact with pension savers.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), plays a key role in protecting the UK from cybercrime and fraud. The NCSC’s Active Cyber Defence (ACD) programme tackles cyber-attacks in an automated and scalable way, to improve national resilience. This includes a takedown service which searches for and identifies malicious websites. Where found, it removes them at source so they cannot cause further harm to the public.
To complement the ACD programme, the NCSC recently launched the Suspicious Email Reporting Service, which allows the public to flag suspicious emails to the NCSC simply by forwarding them to report@phishing.gov.uk. They are then analysed and malicious content is taken down where found.
The Government continues to raise public awareness of scams through ongoing communications directly from DWP and with other organisations. Joint and independent communications from the FCA and tPR spelling out the dangers, what to watch out for and giving clarity to trustees and providers on the boundaries between guidance and advice have been issued since April this year (https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions(opens in a new tab)). Prior to Covid-19 the FCA and tPR conducted regular campaigns, through the ScamSmart branding, to raise awareness of pension scams and what to watch out for, these have been deemed very successful, over 222,000 visited the ScamSmart website to find out how to identify a scam scheme as a result of the most recent pre Covid campaign, July – November 2019.
DWP continues to communicate regularly on social media to set out the warning signs of a scam and has made multiple posts referencing Pension Scams and #ScamSmart in total across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in the period March to September 2020.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with technology companies and platforms on free pension reviews being offered by people seeking to commit fraud via social media to circumvent the pensions cold calling ban.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This government is committed to safeguarding consumer savings. DWP, and other departments, have introduced measures that assist all savers to understand their choices and the possible risks of the choices they make, along with legislation to protect those most vulnerable to scams. This includes the ban on cold calling, which was introduced January 2019. Further action is being taken legislatively and operationally.
To help protect people from pension scams, clause 125 in the Pension Schemes Bill is being introduced, following extensive consultation and debate. It will allow government to introduce measures to limit the statutory right to transfer.
The Bill will ensure that a range of consumer protections will apply to all pension savers, regardless of what avenue, such as online or via social media, is used by potential scammers to contact them with regards to their pension savings. The powers in this Bill will enable government in certain circumstances (red flags) to remove the statutory right to transfer. The Government is working cross department and with industry & regulators to determine red flags including the use of online channels to make contact with pension savers.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), plays a key role in protecting the UK from cybercrime and fraud. The NCSC’s Active Cyber Defence (ACD) programme tackles cyber-attacks in an automated and scalable way, to improve national resilience. This includes a takedown service which searches for and identifies malicious websites. Where found, it removes them at source so they cannot cause further harm to the public.
To complement the ACD programme, the NCSC recently launched the Suspicious Email Reporting Service, which allows the public to flag suspicious emails to the NCSC simply by forwarding them to report@phishing.gov.uk. They are then analysed and malicious content is taken down where found.
The Government continues to raise public awareness of scams through ongoing communications directly from DWP and with other organisations. Joint and independent communications from the FCA and tPR spelling out the dangers, what to watch out for and giving clarity to trustees and providers on the boundaries between guidance and advice have been issued since April this year (https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions(opens in a new tab)). Prior to Covid-19 the FCA and tPR conducted regular campaigns, through the ScamSmart branding, to raise awareness of pension scams and what to watch out for, these have been deemed very successful, over 222,000 visited the ScamSmart website to find out how to identify a scam scheme as a result of the most recent pre Covid campaign, July – November 2019.
DWP continues to communicate regularly on social media to set out the warning signs of a scam and has made multiple posts referencing Pension Scams and #ScamSmart in total across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in the period March to September 2020.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish the equality impact assessments conducted by or on behalf of her Department before the reimposition of universal credit conditionality and sanctioning in July 2020.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No – and there are no plans to publish the Equality Impact assessment as it is a return to existing legislation.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she will take to protect consumers from proceeding with fraudulent online pension transfers.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Government is committed to safeguarding the savings of consumers based in the UK and people living overseas with UK based savings. Although the majority of transfers are to safe destinations there are still fraudsters who try to entice individuals to transfer to schemes for the purposes of relieving them of their pension savings.
To help protect people from pension scams, clause 125 in the Pensions Schemes Bill 2020 will allow government to introduce measures to limit the statutory right to transfer. The clause achieves many things and reference is made to all the parliamentary responses on this topic for the details. However, in summary:
Regulators and trustees also have a broader role to play in scam prevention. The Pension Regulator, Financial Conduct Authority, and Money Advice and Pension Service issued information on 7 April pointing to the actions members should seek to take to safeguard against becoming victims of scams. Additional guidance was issued to trustees, and providers from both The Financial Conduct Authority and the Pensions Regulator to support them to produce suitable communications during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Please see links below for more information about the joint statement from Regulators and the Money Advice Service, and help available, produced by the Pension Protection Fund and supported by government.
https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions
https://www.ppf.co.uk/sites/default/files/file-2020-05/COVID-19-and-your-pension.pdf
In addition, the Government, working with the regulators and the Money and Pension Service, has been communicating with pension savers to alert them to the risk of scams in the current climate. DWP continues to communicate regularly on social media about the warning signs of a scam.
We have adopted an approach that not only safeguards against pension scams but assists all pension savers seeking to access their pensions.
For all pension savers aged 50 and over, in the lead up to accessing their pension savings, our aim is to support them make informed choices about their retirement income. We are therefore committed to replicating measures introduced by the FCA for contract based schemes for occupational pension schemes and requiring trustees to provide information to pensions savers from the age of 50, in a simpler format, to encourage savers to think about their retirement savings, choices and raise awareness of Pension Wise.
We want to encourage savers to take appropriate guidance via Pension Wise when they apply to access savings. We want to present taking guidance or advice as a natural part of the journey when individuals access their pension savings. We are working with the FCA on rules that would require managers of private pension schemes to Introduce parallel provisions.
The Government is committed to safeguarding consumer savings and continues to raise public awareness of scams through ongoing communications directly from DWP and with other organisations.
DWP continues to communicate regularly on social media to set out the warning signs of a scam and has made multiple posts referencing Pension Scams and #ScamSmart in total across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in the period March to September 2020.
In addition, Pensions Dashboards will help more people actively manage their pension savings and plan for their retirement, and this will include making decisions about pension consolidation, particularly for deferred defined contribution pots. Initial dashboards will enable a user to find and view their pension savings in one place. Future functionality will be informed by user research and testing, and consumer protection will be a primary concern in this decision making.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what powers she will give to regulators and trustees to allow them to override the individual’s statutory right to transfer their pension in the event of a suspected scam.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Government is committed to safeguarding the savings of consumers based in the UK and people living overseas with UK based savings. Although the majority of transfers are to safe destinations there are still fraudsters who try to entice individuals to transfer to schemes for the purposes of relieving them of their pension savings.
To help protect people from pension scams, clause 125 in the Pensions Schemes Bill 2020 will allow government to introduce measures to limit the statutory right to transfer. The clause achieves many things and reference is made to all the parliamentary responses on this topic for the details. However, in summary:
Regulators and trustees also have a broader role to play in scam prevention. The Pension Regulator, Financial Conduct Authority, and Money Advice and Pension Service issued information on 7 April pointing to the actions members should seek to take to safeguard against becoming victims of scams. Additional guidance was issued to trustees, and providers from both The Financial Conduct Authority and the Pensions Regulator to support them to produce suitable communications during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Please see links below for more information about the joint statement from Regulators and the Money Advice Service, and help available, produced by the Pension Protection Fund and supported by government.
https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions
https://www.ppf.co.uk/sites/default/files/file-2020-05/COVID-19-and-your-pension.pdf
In addition, the Government, working with the regulators and the Money and Pension Service, has been communicating with pension savers to alert them to the risk of scams in the current climate. DWP continues to communicate regularly on social media about the warning signs of a scam.
We have adopted an approach that not only safeguards against pension scams but assists all pension savers seeking to access their pensions.
For all pension savers aged 50 and over, in the lead up to accessing their pension savings, our aim is to support them make informed choices about their retirement income. We are therefore committed to replicating measures introduced by the FCA for contract based schemes for occupational pension schemes and requiring trustees to provide information to pensions savers from the age of 50, in a simpler format, to encourage savers to think about their retirement savings, choices and raise awareness of Pension Wise.
We want to encourage savers to take appropriate guidance via Pension Wise when they apply to access savings. We want to present taking guidance or advice as a natural part of the journey when individuals access their pension savings. We are working with the FCA on rules that would require managers of private pension schemes to Introduce parallel provisions.
The Government is committed to safeguarding consumer savings and continues to raise public awareness of scams through ongoing communications directly from DWP and with other organisations.
DWP continues to communicate regularly on social media to set out the warning signs of a scam and has made multiple posts referencing Pension Scams and #ScamSmart in total across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in the period March to September 2020.
In addition, Pensions Dashboards will help more people actively manage their pension savings and plan for their retirement, and this will include making decisions about pension consolidation, particularly for deferred defined contribution pots. Initial dashboards will enable a user to find and view their pension savings in one place. Future functionality will be informed by user research and testing, and consumer protection will be a primary concern in this decision making.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
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 effect of the covid-19 pandemic on levels of poverty among UK pensioners living overseas.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This information is not available.
The most recent poverty statistics for pensioners are derived from the 2018/19 Family Resources Survey (FRS) so would not cover the impact of the covid-19 pandemic. As the FRS sample is drawn from random UK addresses it does not provide information on those living overseas.