Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review (1) the level of the Carer's Allowance, and (2) the eligibility threshold for the Carer's Allowance.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government recognises the challenges unpaid carers are facing and is determined to provide them with the help and support they need and deserve. It is looking closely at how the benefit system currently does this, notably through Universal Credit and Carer’s Allowance.
With respect to benefit levels, the Secretary of State has a statutory obligation to review the rates of State pensions and benefits each year. In the case of Carer’s Allowance, the relevant statute provides that it must rise at least in line with the increase in prices over the preceding year. The review to set rates for 2025/26 will take place in the autumn.
Other support is available through the benefit system. Full-time unpaid carers on low incomes may also be eligible for means tested support, such as Universal Credit and Pension Credit. These benefits can be paid to carers at a higher rate than those without caring responsibilities through the carer element and the additional amount for carers respectively. Currently, the Universal Credit carer element is £198.31 per monthly assessment period. The additional amount for carers in Pension Credit is £45.60 a week.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many pensioners aged 75 and over receive (1) state pension, and (2) pensioner credit, in each of the ten districts of Greater Manchester.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
In November 2018, the number of pensioners aged 75 and over claiming the State Pension and Pension Credit in the Greater Manchester districts can be found in the table below.
Pension Credit and State Pension Recipients by district
| State Pension | Pension Credit |
Bolton | 21,321 | 4,859 |
Bury | 15,189 | 2,790 |
Manchester | 21,524 | 8,290 |
Oldham | 16,374 | 3,746 |
Rochdale | 15,231 | 3,798 |
Salford | 16,157 | 4,255 |
Stockport | 27,258 | 4,239 |
Tameside | 17,049 | 3,790 |
Trafford | 19,359 | 3,006 |
Wigan | 26,354 | 5,416 |
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many separate bank accounts have been established in the last 12 months for benefit claimants suffering from domestic violence.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. DWP statisticians are currently working to develop official statistics on Alternative Payment Arrangements for Universal Credit (UC) which will include information on split payments.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the latest estimate of the percentage of pensioners who will receive the full amount of the flat-rate State Pension from April 2016.
Answered by Baroness Altmann
Nearly 90% of people reaching State Pension age in 2016/17 would have the full rate of the new State Pension, or more, if we include the amount of additional State Pension they opted out of or were opted out of when contracted out of SERPS or State Second Pension (S2P) (additional pension).
The percentage of pensioners reaching State Pension age in 2016/17 estimated to receive the full amount of the new State Pension directly from the state is around 37%. By 2020 this percentage will reach around 50% and by 2035 around 84%. Most people who contracted out of SERPS or S2P were required, as a condition of contracting out, to accrue an alternative private pension. This replaced the additional State Pension, which they were contracted-out of.
This reflects the fact that when contracted out they have either paid National Insurance Contributions at a lower rate, or some of the National Insurance contributions they paid were used to contribute to a private pension instead of the additional State Pension. They paid lower National Insurance into the National Insurance system, which reflected the fact that they were contributing to a private pension instead.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the proportion of people whose defined contribution pension fund is in the ranges (1) £0 to £5,000, (2) £5,000 to £10,000, (3) £10,000 to £15,000, (4) £15,000 to £20,000, (5) £20,000 to £25,000, (6) £25,000 to £30,000, (7) £30,000 to £35,000, (8) £35,000 to £40,000, (9) £40,000 to £45,000, (10) £45,000 to £50,000, and (11) over £50,000.
Answered by Lord Freud
Estimates of defined contribution wealth in the accumulation phase have been made by DWP using the Wealth and Assets survey (WAS). The analysis excludes individuals with zero DC wealth and includes all adults aged 16 and over.
Table 1: Distribution of individuals with wealth in DC pensions not yet in payment, 2010/12
DC Wealth in Accumulation phase | % of individuals |
between £0 and £4,999 | 26 |
between £5,000 and £9,999 | 14 |
between £10,000 and £14,999 | 10 |
between £15,000 and £19,999 | 8 |
between £20,000 and £24,999 | 5 |
between £25,000 and £29,999 | 4 |
between £30,000 and £34,999 | 4 |
between £35,000 and £39,999 | 3 |
between £40,000 and £44,999 | 3 |
between £45,000 and £49,999 | 2 |
greater than £50,000 | 21 |
Source: DWP analysis of ONS WAS data from 2010-12 (Wave 3)