Sep. 27 2024
Source Page: Complaints about DWP: financial year 2024 to 2025Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many pensioners in the UK have annual incomes below £15,000, and of those how many are in receipt of pension credit.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
For financial year 2022/23, we estimate that the number of pensioner units with gross annual income below £15,000 is approximately 1.6 million. Of those, we estimate 0.3 million are in receipt of Pension Credit.
This estimate is based on Pensioners’ Incomes and Households Below Average Income data derived from the Family Resources Survey and covers private households in the United Kingdom. Income is calculated as total income of the pensioner unit, including benefits such as State Pension and Pension Credit, occupational and personal pensions, investment income and earnings.
A pensioner unit can be a single pensioner over State Pension age, a pensioner couple where one member is over State Pension age, or a pensioner couple where both members are over State Pension age.
We want all eligible pensioners to apply for Pension Credit and so the Department is continuing to maximise opportunities to promote Pension Credit.
Like all means-tested benefits, a person’s eligibility for Pension Credit and the amount they may get depends on their specific financial and personal circumstances. Full eligibility criteria are available on gov.uk at the following link: Pension Credit: Eligibility - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
That’s why we encourage anyone who thinks they may be entitled to check whether they can get Pension Credit.
This Autumn, we will be directly contacting pensioners who are in receipt of Housing Benefit but who may be eligible for, but not currently claiming, Pension Credit – building on last years ‘Invitation to Claim’ trial.
From 16th September we have launched a Pension Credit awareness campaign across press, radio and social media and I know that the devolved administrations in Wales and Scotland, along with local authorities and organisations such as Age UK, are also undertaking promotional activities.
Sep. 25 2024
Source Page: How the transitional element is calculated when you move to Universal CreditAsked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sherlock on 7 August (HL344), whether any of the civil servants claiming diversity network time are also claiming trade union facility time, and at what hourly amounts; and what is their policy on the double dipping of network time and facility time.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are fewer than 5 individuals in DWP in September 2024 who are claiming Trade Union (TU) Facility time and Diversity Network time.
In line with standard departmental practice in statistics, we do not publish details of numbers below 5, or where individuals might otherwise be identified in the data, as this would breach our data protection obligations.
DWP does not have a policy on colleagues claiming both Diversity Network Time and Facility Time at the same time.
Asked by: Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the effectiveness of Jobcentre Plus in helping people get back into work.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The last Parliament saw the biggest increase in economic inactivity in nearly 40 years. The employment rate remains 1.4%pts lower than before the pandemic. Only one in six people escape low pay over the course of a decade.
The UK is the only G7 country not to have a higher employment rate than pre-COVID. We are reforming employment support, bringing together Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service. The new jobs and careers service will transform our ability to support more people into work and help those on low pay to increase their earnings, which will in turn be vital to supporting our wider economic growth mission.
We will set out our plans in more detail through the forthcoming White Paper to Get Britain Working.
Sep. 24 2024
Source Page: New laws to be introduced to crack down on fraudSep. 24 2024
Source Page: DWP: workforce management information June 2024Sep. 24 2024
Source Page: DWP: workforce management information June 2024