Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the Minister for Pensions last met pensioners who are members of the the Financial Assistance Scheme.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The former Minister for Pensions and Financial Inclusion, met with pensioners who are members of the Financial Assistance Scheme on 16 June 2021 during a meeting with former members of the Allied Steel and Wire pension scheme.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for any type of benefit provided by his Department were made by people in employment in (a) Cardiff and (b) the Vale of Glamorgan in each of the last six months.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information requested for income-related benefits is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who have been affected by the underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment and support allowance in Cardiff South and Penarth constituency.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
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 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)
No such assessment has been made by the Secretary of State.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish the total amount paid out to members of the Financial Assistance Scheme in Wales in each of the last five years.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The table below provides details of the total amount paid out to members of the Financial Assistance Scheme in each of the last five years for Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Year | Great Britain | Northern Ireland | Total |
2016-2017 | £189,739,599 | £4,968,275 | £194,707,874 |
2017-2018 | £211,930,501 | £5,474,513 | £217,405,014 |
2018-2019 | £211,614,050 | £5,499,935 | £217,113,985 |
2019-2020 | £212,227,970 | £5,693,023 | £217,920,993 |
2020-2021 | £218,793,879 | £6,149,583 | £224,943,462 |
Total | £1,044,305,999 | £27,785,329 | £1,072,091,328 |
The Department does not breakdown information for Wales.
Source of information: Department for Work and Pensions Annual Report and Accounts. Northern Ireland Department for Communities Annual Report and Accounts
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the total amount paid out to members of the Financial Assistance Scheme for pensions in each of the last five years.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The table below provides details of the total amount paid out to members of the Financial Assistance Scheme in each of the last five years for Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Year | Great Britain | Northern Ireland | Total |
2016-2017 | £189,739,599 | £4,968,275 | £194,707,874 |
2017-2018 | £211,930,501 | £5,474,513 | £217,405,014 |
2018-2019 | £211,614,050 | £5,499,935 | £217,113,985 |
2019-2020 | £212,227,970 | £5,693,023 | £217,920,993 |
2020-2021 | £218,793,879 | £6,149,583 | £224,943,462 |
Total | £1,044,305,999 | £27,785,329 | £1,072,091,328 |
The Department does not breakdown information for Wales.
Source of information: Department for Work and Pensions Annual Report and Accounts. Northern Ireland Department for Communities Annual Report and Accounts
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many new applications for universal credit have been processed in (a) Cardiff and (b) Vale of Glamorgan in each month since 1 January 2020.
Answered by Will Quince
Statistics on Universal Credit claims can be found on Stat-Xplore:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints her Department received in relation to processing claims for (a) universal credit and (b) personal independence payments in Wales in the last six months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The customer’s address is not a mandatory field when registering complaints on the Department’s complaints system. From the available data, the Department has received a total of 13 Universal Credit and 22 Personal Independence Payment complaints in relation to processing claims for Wales during the period July to December 2019.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the financial assistance scheme for pensioners affected by occupational pension scheme looses.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS), which is administered by the Pensions Protection Fund (PPF) on behalf of DWP, was set up in 2005 with assistance payments backdated to May 2004 when the policy of the FAS was announced. Prior to the establishment of the FAS, employees received vastly reduced benefits from pension schemes in difficulty and sometimes nothing at all, irrespective of the contributions they had made.
£400 million of public funding over 20 years was initially committed to the FAS which helped an estimated 15,000 people. The support available to members of FAS has subsequently been extended over the years and, as a consequence, the level of Government funding of the scheme has increased significantly bringing the Government’s total long-term cash expenditure on the scheme to £8.6 billion.
The FAS closed to notification and qualification of new schemes on 1 September 2016 but will continue to support its 150,000 members who will continue to receive a meaningful income for the rest of their lives.
The Government remains committed to the principle of providing protection for members of pension schemes in the event of employer insolvency via the PPF.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support her Department is providing to (a) pilots and (b) cabin crew affected by the liquidation of Thomas Cook.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP stands ready to support anyone affected by the closure of Thomas Cook, with our Rapid Response Service (RRS) offer. This is a redundancy service designed to give support and advice to employers and their employees when faced with redundancy. It is coordinated nationally by the National Employer and Partnership Team (NEPT) and is managed by Jobcentre Plus.
The RRS has been mobilised to help people find a new job as soon as possible by offering tailored support. Each Jobcentre Plus district deploy resources according to the situation and the requirements of the workforce. The RRS is delivered in partnership with a range of national and local partners, including National Careers Service and local service providers.
Our local teams are monitoring all new claims to benefits to identify where the claimant is an ex-employee of Thomas Cook so that they quickly receive the right level of support.
The Department is working closely with over 100 employers to offer support and opportunities. We are delivering over 65 Job Fairs nationally, where ex-employees can meet local employers with vacancies.
The full range of support available from Jobcentre Plus and partners includes:
Please note that the data supplied are derived from unpublished management information which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.