Asked by: Yvonne Fovargue (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people in Makerfield constituency have (a) opted out after being auto-enrolled into a workplace pension and (b) saved more than the auto-enrolment minimum contribution.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Automatic enrolment has achieved a quiet revolution through getting employees into the habit of pension saving, and reversing the decline in workplace pension participation in the decade prior to these reforms. Since automatic enrolment started in 2012 participation rates have been transformed with 87% of eligible employees saving into a workplace pension in 2018, up from 55% in 2012.
The Department does not hold data for individual constituencies in relation to opt outs or the number of individuals who have saved above the automatic enrolment minimum contribution level. However, we do know that overall around 9% of automatically enrolled workers have chosen to opt out which is significantly below original estimates; and our latest evaluation report shows that, in April 2017, approximately 5.9 million eligible employees were already meeting the April 2019 minimum contribution rates1.
I am providing the following information about the impact of automatic enrolment in your constituency, as at end of September 20192:
In the Makerfield constituency since 2012, approximately 5,000 eligible jobholders have been automatically enrolled and 1200 employers have met their duties.
1Automatic Enrolment Evaluation Report 2018, available via the following weblink: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/764964/Automatic_Enrolment_Evaluation_Report_2018.pdf.
2The Pensions Regulator’s data on Automatic enrolment declaration of compliance by constituency, available via the following weblink:
https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/document-library/research-and-analysis/data-requests
Asked by: Yvonne Fovargue (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have had deductions from their universal credit of (a) 40 per cent and (b) 30 per cent for the repayment of advances on that benefit.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Of the eligible Universal Credit Full Service claims due a payment in October 2018 (990,000 claims – rounded to the nearest 10,000):
The claim count figures in this text will not match the official statistics due to methodological differences.
At Autumn Budget 2018 we announced that from October 2019, we will reduce the maximum rate at which deductions can be made from a Universal Credit award from 40% to 30% of the standard allowance. The total saving for claimants is £25 million in 2019/20, increasing to £65 million in 2023/24.
This is detailed in Table 1.8 in the Budget 2018 which can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/budget-2018-documents/budget-2018
This will ensure that those on Universal Credit are supported to repay debts in a more sustainable and manageable way. Additionally, from October 2021, the government will also increase the period over which advances will be recovered, from 12 to 16 months.
Asked by: Yvonne Fovargue (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have had more than 40 per cent deducted from their universal credit payment to repay a combination of (a) advance payments of that benefit and (b)(i) utility debts and (ii) council tax arrears.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Department does not have access to data outlining third party deductions by deduction type. As such, to provide this data would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Yvonne Fovargue (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have had deductions from their universal credit of (a) 20 per cent for a single debt as a result of (i) a utility company bill, (ii) council tax arrears and (iii) other liabilities and (b) 30 per cent for two such debts.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Department does not have access to data outlining third party deductions by deduction type. As such, to provide this data would incur disproportionate cost.