Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department has taken to allow pensioners to draw down all funds within any public pension schemes that existed before 2016-17.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Members of funded public sector defined benefit pension schemes can take advantage of the pension freedoms by transferring their pension savings to a private defined contribution pension scheme before cashing in their pension. Members of unfunded public sector defined benefit schemes cannot transfer to access the pension freedoms. In unfunded defined benefit public service pension schemes, there is no fund of assets with which to finance transfer payments. Instead, they are funded from contributions and through general expenditure.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that reforms of the welfare system are communicated clearly to recipients of welfare payments.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
DWP communicates reforms of the welfare system to recipients of welfare payments in advance of the change and using the most appropriate channel including on-line, face to face, telephone and in writing.
To ensure that these communications are clear we follow pre-defined standards that meet accessibility requirements, are readable and easy to act on. We test products to confirm this.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
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 the discretionary housing payments scheme in preventing households in exceptional circumstances having to pay the under-occupancy penalty.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
For 2015/16 we have provided £60 million in Discretionary Housing Payment funding to help protect individuals affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy and we have protected this support at £60 million for 2016/17
Since 2013, £25 million of the Discretionary Housing Payment funding for the removal of the spare room subsidy has been allocated to support disabled people living in significantly adapted accommodation, including any adaptations made for disabled children. This funding support remains unchanged for 2016/17.
In the last financial year, the majority of local authorities spent less than or 100 per cent of their funding which indicates that they had sufficient funds to meet demand.
In the first six months of this financial year (2015/16) the majority of local authorities had spent less than 50 per cent of their Discretionary Housing Payment allocation.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance his Department has given to Southampton City Council on the level of funding that will be available for discretionary housing payment in future years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Local authorities, including Southampton City Council, were informed of their Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) funding allocation for this financial year on 4 February 2016.
Southampton City Council have been allocated DHP funding of £624,817 for 2016/17, a 35% increase from their 2015/16 allocation and local authorities are able to top up Central Government funding by a maximum of two and a half times this figure using their own funds
This package of Discretionary Housing Payment funding (£870 million over 5 years) will enable Local Authorities to provide support to the most vulnerable claimants.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that rules relating to under-occupancy do not affect households in which couples have to sleep in separate rooms due to medical appliances.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The High Court and Court of Appeal have accepted that disability, including situations where medical equipment is being used, does not necessarily prevent couples from being able to share a bedroom. Because of this administering a blanket exemption would be extremely difficult.
In addition, an enhanced package of Discretionary Housing Payment funding (£870 million over 5 years) will enable Local Authorities to provide support to the most vulnerable claimants.