Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the sale of the Boots Pension scheme to an insurance company and (2) the effect of this sale on the protection provided to the pensions held in the Boots Pension scheme by the Pension Protection Fund.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
When a Defined Benefit pension scheme transfers responsibility for paying some or all of its members’ benefits to an insurer, the scheme pays a premium to the insurance company, which then takes on responsibility for paying the promised benefits. This is a well-established approach used by pension scheme trustees to secure the promised pensions for members with an insurance company.
Arrangements to provide pension benefits to some or all scheme members with an insurer are secure and offer long term protection for member benefits. Insurance companies are regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority and their policy holders are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Pension Protection Fund protection is retained until the whole scheme is transferred to an insurer, and both the sponsor and the trustees are discharged. At that point the members are no longer protected by the Pension Protection Fund. This is because all benefits are now secured with an insurance company.
No assessments of individual schemes are made by Government.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend (1) to remove the £10 Christmas bonus for qualifying pensioners, or (2) to restore it to its original value as a percentage of the basic pension.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has no current plans to revise the arrangements for the Christmas Bonus.
The Christmas Bonus is an annual, tax-free, lump sum payment to pensioners and to working age people who are in receipt of certain qualifying benefits during the relevant week which is usually the first full week in December.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether all residents of Knighton, regardless of whether they reside in the English or Welsh parts of the town, have access to the town’s job centre.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
Universal Credit operates on postcodes therefore when a claim is made, the individual will be automatically assigned to the Jobcentre which serves that postcode. Customers in Knighton are allocated to Llandrindod Wells Jobcentre Plus.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many benefit claimants with an address in Ludlow have been sanctioned for failing to keep appointments at the Jobcentre in Leominster in 2024.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
The specific information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Monthly Universal Credit sanction statistics showing the number of adverse sanction decisions made are published every three months on Stat-Xplore, and are available by Jobcentre Plus office and referral reason, and are currently available to October 2023. Statistics to January 2024 are scheduled to be published on 14 May 2024.
Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many benefit claimants with an address in Ludlow visited the Jobcentre in Leominster and were refused travel costs in 2024.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to institute a programme of testing of domestic premises to measures the risks of neutral current diversion.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regulates the safety of the public electricity network, including equipment owned by Distribution Network Operators. HSE have monitored developments carefully and continue to do so. Officials from HSE are of the view that no additional action is required by the regulator to manage this risk of neutral current diversion at the present time.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the issue of neutral current diversions leading to electricity flowing through gas meters following domestic gas explosions.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) officials have advised neutral current diversions are a known phenomenon and can occur for a number of reasons. The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations require additional electrical bonding when cutting conducting gas pipes to minimise the risk to workers. HSE are of the view that no additional action is required by the regulator to manage this risk at the present time but will keep emerging evidence under review.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which debt collecting agencies the Department for Work and Pensions has ceased to use within the last five years; and what were the reasons in each case.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The DWP has a Debt Market Integrator (DMI) Contract running from 01/04/15 and runs until 20/09/22. Under this contract, Indesser manages several agreements for the provision of debt collection, analytics and litigation services.
The contract was placed in 2015, which is a joint venture between HMT and TDX Group, an Equifax company.
The Framework was formed to provide a single point of access to a wide range of debt management and collection services for government departments and the wider public sector.
DMI presents opportunities to leverage economies of scale across Government giving high power to Government Purchasers. Currently Indesser works with nine government departments: HMRC, DWP, Home Office, DVLA, Student Loans Company, MOJ, Legal Aid Agency, Local Authorities.
Indesser hold direct contracts with debt collection agencies (DCA). Each are subject to the Framework standards. They are managed and monitored for performance by Indesser. Current and Historical DCA information and further details of DWP influence on selection/removal of DCAs are outlined below.
List of current DMI DCAs that provide services to DWP
Any previous DCA providers over the last 5 years
DWP influence on the selection of DCA providers
DWP does not directly influence the selection of DCA providers that provide services to them. The DWP panel was selected by TDX Group and Indesser based on the characteristics of the DWP debt and their suitability to collect the debt and the value for money offered by the DCA.
Whilst DWP do not directly influence the selection of the panel, any changes to the DCA panel will be managed through the Contract change control process therefore DWP would need to approve any changes.
DWP influence on the removal of any DCA providers
DWP do not influence the removal of DCA providers. The panel is closely monitored on a series of performance metrics and where a DCA fails to meet the framework standards they could be removed from a particular client’s panel.
Whilst DWP do not directly influence the removal of a DCA from their panel, the change would be managed through the Contract change control process therefore DWP would be required to approve the change.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when a minister last had discussions with (1) the charity Motability, and (2) the trading arm Motability Operations plc, in respect of the supply of vehicles to people eligible to lease vehicles using a social security benefit as payment.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
When an eligible claimant elects to join the Motability Scheme the Department facilitates the transfer of their benefit payment to Motability. The Department makes no financial contributions to the Motability charity or Motability Operations and the Accounting Officer would not, therefore routinely meet the trustees of the charity Motability.
In order to ensure eligible claimants receive an appropriate level of support, and to suggest ways to improve the support provided by Motability, senior civil servants have regular contact with the charity Motability.
The Minister for Disabled People, Health & Work had an introductory meeting with the Chairman of Motability in January 2018. Ministers do not routinely engage directly with Motability Operations, as this is an independent company, which Motability oversees.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the Department for Work and Pensions Accounting Officer last met the trustees of the charity Motability in respect of the financial arrangement operating between the Department and that charity for the supply of vehicles leased using a social security benefit as payment.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
When an eligible claimant elects to join the Motability Scheme the Department facilitates the transfer of their benefit payment to Motability. The Department makes no financial contributions to the Motability charity or Motability Operations and the Accounting Officer would not, therefore routinely meet the trustees of the charity Motability.
In order to ensure eligible claimants receive an appropriate level of support, and to suggest ways to improve the support provided by Motability, senior civil servants have regular contact with the charity Motability.
The Minister for Disabled People, Health & Work had an introductory meeting with the Chairman of Motability in January 2018. Ministers do not routinely engage directly with Motability Operations, as this is an independent company, which Motability oversees.