Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of abolishing National Insurance Contributions on funding for state pensions.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government believes the double taxation of work is unfair. That is why we’ve cut 4p from employee NICs in the last six months which will mean the average worker receives a tax cut worth £900 this coming year and why we are committed to ending this unfairness.
Cutting NICs rates does not affect anyone’s entitlement to the State Pension or contributory benefits.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of abolishing National Insurance Contributions on determining eligibility criteria for the state pension.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government believes the double taxation of work is unfair. That is why we’ve cut 4p from employee NICs in the last six months which will mean the average worker receives a tax cut worth £900 this coming year and why we are committed to ending this unfairness.
Cutting NICs rates does not affect anyone’s entitlement to the State Pension or contributory benefits.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 help people save for the future.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Retirement saving has been transformed with over 11 million employees put into workplace pensions since 2012.
We are committed to the expansion of Automatic Enrolment in the mid-2020s. Our reforms will benefit younger workers and increase overall amounts being saved, with 3m people saving £2bn extra a year.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 7 March 2024 to Question 16811 on State Retirement Pensions: National Insurance Contributions, how many days his Department took on average to reassess a citizen's claim to state pensions following notification of an updated National Insurance record by HMRC in the latest year for which data is available; and how many people waited more than one month for their claim to be reassessed in that period.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This information is only available at disproportionate cost to The Department for Work & Pensions as the Department does not have a business requirement for this information to be retained.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his Financial Statement from 6 March 2024, Official Report, column 851, whether his Department has made an assessment of potential alternative funding mechanisms for the State Pension.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government believes the double taxation of work is unfair. That is why we’ve cut 4p from employee NICs in the last six months which will mean the average worker receives a tax cut worth £900 this coming year and why we are committed to ending this unfairness.
Cutting NICs rates does not affect anyone’s entitlement to the State Pension or contributory benefits.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of abolishing national insurance contributions on state pension entitlements.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government believes the double taxation of work is unfair. That is why we’ve cut 4p from employee NICs in the last six months which will mean the average worker receives a tax cut worth £900 this coming year and why we are committed to ending this unfairness.
Cutting NICs rates does not affect anyone’s entitlement to the State Pension or contributory benefits.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the state pension age will increase to (a) 67 in 2026-28 and (b) 68 in 2044-46.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The increase to age 67 in 2026-2028 will continue as set out in Pensions Act 2014. Due to uncertainties in relation to life expectancy data, labour markets and the public finances, the Government committed to undertake a further State Pension age review within two years of the next Parliament to consider the appropriateness of the rules on the State Pension age rise to 68 in 2044-46.
Full details of the Governments conclusions were published in the State Pension age Review 2023 (Section 1.4) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-pension-age-review-2023-government-report/state-pension-age-review-2023.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of increasing the state pension age to (a) 67 in 2026-28 and (b) 68 in 2044-46 on levels of pensioner poverty.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to action that helps to alleviate levels of pensioner poverty. In 2021/22 there were 200 thousand fewer pensioners in absolute poverty after housing costs than in 2009/10.
As evaluations of the impacts of State Pension age rises have been retrospective it is not possible to robustly and comparably estimate future impacts of changes in State Pension age on pensioner poverty levels. The March 2023 State Pension age Review published our analysis of the impact of previous SPa changes. This shows the increase in State Pension age from 65 to 66 led to a temporary increase in the absolute poverty rate for 65-year-olds with those affected lifted out of poverty once their new State Pension age was reached. The analysis also found positive employment effects from increasing the State Pension age from 65 to 66, as people responded by working longer and on average earned more than if they had retired and claimed State Pension.
State Pension age Review 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will make an estimate of the number of people with disabilities in the UK that (a) stopped receiving a mobility allowance and (b) lost access to the Motability Scheme as a result of reaching state pension age in 2023.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Claimants in receipt of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) before reaching state pension age, are still entitled to their award after reaching state pension age.
No claimant over state pension age will lose their mobility component or access to the Motability scheme providing they continue to meet the qualifying conditions of the benefit.
During 2022-23, an average of 226,000 PIP claimants of pension age received the enhanced mobility award in England & Wales. Any claimant in receipt of enhanced rate mobility can choose to exchange this for a lease on a Motability car, powered wheelchair or scooter.
We do not hold data on how many PIP claimants over state pension age choose to use the Motability scheme.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 potential merits of publishing compensation scheme proposals for the women affected by the state pension age changes.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s investigation on State Pension age communications is ongoing and Section 7(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 states that Ombudsman investigations “shall be conducted in private”.
The Department is cooperating fully with the Ombudsman’s investigation.