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 effect of changes in the Pensions Act 2011 on trends in the level of (a) the overall claimant count, (b) the employment support allowance claimant count and (c) unemployment.

The Government does not have sufficient data to make an assessment of the effect of changes in the Pensions Act 2011 on the numbers on ESA, the overall claimant count or the numbers of people unemployed. However, research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) suggests that rises in the State Pension age for women have had a significant, positive impact on employment. Its analysis concluded that women’s employment rates at ages 60 to 61 increased by 6.3 percentage points as a result of the SPa increase from age 60 to age 62 between April 2010 and March 2014.

In addition to the impact on employment rates, the findings indicate that the policy change also led to a 4.0 percentage points increase in the proportion of women reporting themselves as sick or disabled and a 1.2 percentage point increase in the fraction of women who were unemployed and actively seeking work, at ages 60 and 61. These observed increases in employment, reported poor health and unemployment were offset by an 11.5 percentage point reduction in the proportion reporting themselves to be retired.

The Government is committed to supporting people aged 50 years and over to remain in and return to work and will be publishing an employer-led Fuller Working Lives strategy in due course which sets out the Government’s approach to older workers.