Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the War Disablement Pension is disregarded in its entirety when calculating entitlement to social security benefits.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
In the calculation of Universal Credit, War Disablement Pension is disregarded in its entirety.
In the calculation of the legacy income-related benefits administered by the Department which Universal Credit is replacing (Income Support, Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income-related Employment & Support Allowance), there is a weekly disregard of £10.
A similar £10 weekly disregard also applies in State Pension Credit. With regards to Housing Benefit, regulations permit local authorities to disregard beyond the standard disregard amount of £10 a week, the whole or part of the War Disablement Pension.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the decision of UNICEF to commence feeding children in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
No assessment has been made. Throughout this pandemic, this Government has delivered an unprecedented package of support to protect jobs and businesses and, for those in most need, injected billions into the welfare system. The new COVID Winter Grant Scheme builds on that support with an additional £170 million for local authorities in England, to support families with children and other vulnerable people with the cost of food and essential utilities this winter. Funding has been disbursed according to an authority’s population, weighted by a function of the English index of multiple deprivation.
Devolved Administrations have received equivalent funding through the upfront funding guarantee we have provided, which was recently increased to £16 billion for the year to support their COVID-19 response.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether applicants suffering from Fibromyalgia are refused benefits because the condition is not recognised as sufficiently serious to cause disability.
Answered by Lord Freud
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) recognises Fibromyalgia as a real and potentially significantly disabling condition. Where a clinical diagnosis of Fibromyalgia has been made full account will be taken of its functional effects when determining benefit entitlement.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much is paid in benefits to claimants who are citizens of each of the 27 other EU member states, and how many such claimants there are from each of those countries.
Answered by Lord Freud
Information on benefit receipt by nationality is not available.
The Department has published statistics on working age benefit recipients claiming within 6 months of National Insurance Number (NINO) registration. This information is known as “Nationality at point of National Insurance number registration of DWP benefit claimants” and is included in the “Statistical Bulletin on National Insurance Number Allocations to Adult Overseas Nationals”.
The Government is looking at ways to reform the current administrative system under Universal Credit so that it will systematically record nationality and immigration status of migrants who make a claim.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made in encouraging small pension funds in the United Kingdom to amalgamate or co-operate in order to be able to compete with larger international pension funds in the purchase of suitable assets.
Answered by Baroness Altmann
Automatic enrolment is driving scale in pension provision and the clear trend is towards larger schemes which are better able to take advantage of the economies of scale including better access to a wider range of investment vehicles.
The Government fully supports the concrete steps the pensions industry has taken to cooperate on investment strategies – for example, the Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PIP) launched in February last year, and the London Collective Investment Vehicle (CIV) currently under development by a number of local authorities’ pension schemes in London.
Moreover, the Government will also work with the Local Government Pension Scheme Administering Authorities more widely to ensure that they pool investments to reduce costs significantly, while maintaining overall investment performance.
Trustees and managers are ultimately responsible for making investment decisions in the best interests of scheme members, and the Government recognises the challenges of the current economic environment for scheme funding. The Pensions Regulator sets out on an annual basis its key messages on current market conditions and how trustees and employers can agree appropriate funding plans that protect members’ benefits without undermining the sustainable growth of the employer.
Ministers continue to meet regularly with key stakeholders from the pensions industry to understand better the range of challenges facing schemes and employers and will consider whether there are further steps the Government could take.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will support an application to the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund in respect of job losses in Northern Ireland following the decision of Japanese Tobacco International to close its manufacturing plant in Ballymena.
Answered by Lord Freud
The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) Regulations set out strict criteria and eligibility for potential applicants. It is questionable whether the redundancy situation in this case meets EGF eligibility.
The Department of Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland, through its Redundancy Service, offers tailor-made and wide ranging packages of support measures such as those that would be funded through EGF.
The UK Government wishes to see real budgetary restraint in the EU in order to avoid unaffordable high costs to the UK. Any successful EGF application would count as a receipt to the UK and would therefore lead to a reduction in the abatement.
Pursuing domestic schemes, such as the Northern Ireland Redundancy Service, would therefore represent better value for money.
Nevertheless, if any bid that were to come forward to my Department, met the criteria and represented value for money, it would receive full consideration.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what costs they estimate will be incurred by the Northern Ireland Executive were the Department for Work and Pensions information technology system to be unable to process claims from Northern Ireland residents.
Answered by Lord Freud
Northern Ireland is responsible for its own social security, pensions and child support systems. The Northern Ireland and Great Britain systems have traditionally operated in tandem in what is effectively a United Kingdom wide system.
Should Northern Ireland decide not to mirror the welfare reform measures in Great Britain, it would be a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive to determine and fund the IT systems needed as a result of their decision.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government for how long the information technology system used by the Department for Work and Pensions to calculate welfare benefits will be able to process claims from residents in Northern Ireland if different criteria continue to be used in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Answered by Lord Freud
Northern Ireland is responsible for its own social security, pensions and child support systems. The Northern Ireland and Great Britain systems have traditionally operated in tandem in what is effectively a United Kingdom wide system.
Should Northern Ireland decide not to mirror the welfare reform measures in Great Britain, it would be a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive to determine and fund the IT systems needed as a result of their decision.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the total value of United Kingdom pension funds.
Answered by Lord Freud
All information is published within the TPR Corporate Plan 2014-2017, on page 18.
http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/docs/corporate-plan-2014-2017.pdf
This table shows the total assets held within pension funds governed by The Pensions Regulator (TPR), broken down by the four main types of private work-based pension products where TPR's powers apply.