Asked by: Andrew Bowie (Conservative - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the potential impact of the steps her Department has taken to increase the number of people claiming Pension Credit on the cost to the public purse of expenditure on that benefit.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government announced on the 29 July 2024 that eligibility for Winter Fuel payments will be linked to those on Pension Credit or other means tested benefits for pensioners from Winter 2024. We have received around 38,500 Pension Credit claims in the 5 weeks since the announcement on 29th July (which is up to and including w/c 26th August). This is compared to around 17,900 Pension Credit claims in the 5 weeks preceding the announcement. This represents a 115% increase in Pension Credit claims received by the Department in the past 5 weeks compared to the 5 weeks before. These published statistics can be found here: Weekly Pension Credit claims received from 1 April 2024 to 1 September 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). It is not currently possible to estimate the expenditure that will result from this.
Asked by: Andrew Bowie (Conservative - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to the eligibility criteria for the Winter Fuel Payment on pensioners in rural areas.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Winter Fuel Payments will continue to be paid to pensioner households with someone receiving Pension Credit or certain other income-related benefits. They will continue to be worth £200 for eligible households, or £300 for eligible households with someone aged 80 and over.
We know there are low-income pensioners who aren’t claiming Pension Credit, and we urge those people to apply. This will passport them to receive Winter Fuel Payment alongside other benefits – hundreds of pounds that could really help them. We will ensure that the poorest pensioners get the support they need.
Energy support, including customers off-grid, is provided by local authorities, the responsibility of Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the devolved governments.
The Warm Home Discount is available to eligible low-income households, who pay their electricity bill directly to a participating domestic supplier. A specific scheme is available to support eligible park homes residents, under the industry initiatives element of the Warm Home Discount Scheme.
The Home Upgrade Grant provides grants to low-income households to upgrade the energy performance of the worst quality, off gas grid homes in England by installing energy efficiency measures and low carbon heating.
This will typically include insulation measures in combination with a heat pump to make the home heat efficient and suitable for the future as we build towards net zero.
Asked by: Andrew Bowie (Conservative - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to ensure that (a) War Pensions and (b) Armed Forces Compensation Scheme awards are not counted as income for the purpose of calculating (i) benefits and (ii) pensions.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no plans to change the ways in which War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) awards interact with State Pensions and benefits. They are already fully ignored in the State Pension and in Universal Credit.
The first £10 per week of a War Pension or AFCS award is disregarded in: income-related Employment and Support allowance; income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance; and, Income Support. Armed Forces Independence Payments are fully disregarded in these benefits, and can also allow the recipient to qualify for an additional disability amount. Furthermore, these are legacy benefits, in the process of being replaced by Universal Credit, in which War Pensions and AFCS are ignored.
By default, the first £10 per week of a War Pension or Armed Forces Compensation Scheme is disregarded in Housing Benefit. Furthermore, a discretionary scheme allows local authorities to fully disregard them.
In relation to Pension Credit, the first £10 of any War Pension payments or AFCS award made due to injury or disablement is disregarded. Four additions to the War Disablement Pension are completely disregarded: Constant Attendance Allowance; Mobility Supplement; Severe Disablement Occupational Allowance; and dependency increases for anyone other than the applicant or her/his partner. War Pensions and AFCS awards are a qualifying income for the Savings Credit element of Pension Credit, which is available to those who reached State Pension age before April 2016. Armed Forces Independence Payments are fully disregarded in Pension Credit and can also allow the recipient to qualify for an additional disability amount.
Asked by: Andrew Bowie (Conservative - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assistance the Government is providing to newly arrived Afghan nationals seeking to enter employment.
Answered by David Rutley
Those coming from Afghanistan to the UK on the resettlement programmes will have the right to work here from day one, as well as immediate access to the benefit system and our existing employment offer, including our £30 billion Plan for Jobs.
Direct, personalised support is available from experienced work coaches in the temporary hotel accommodation where Afghans are staying across the country. Work coaches are there to help with any claims or queries and to provide tailored employment support. Resettling Afghans will also have access to our Refugee Leads Network, which links Jobcentres and organisations working with refugees and those on resettlement programmes, to help them integrate and find employment in local areas. We will also work to ensure that English as a Second or Other Language provision, and other support, is available to those that need it.
Asked by: Andrew Bowie (Conservative - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine constituency have (a) opted out after being auto-enrolled into a workplace pension and (b) saved more than the auto-enrolment minimum contribution.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Automatic enrolment has achieved a quiet revolution through getting employees into the habit of pension saving. It has reversed the decline in workplace pension participation seen in the decade prior to its introduction. Since automatic enrolment started in 2012 participation rates have been transformed with 87% of eligible employees saving into a workplace pension in 2018, up from 55% in 2012.
The Department does not hold data for individual constituencies in relation to opt outs or the number of individuals who have saved above the automatic enrolment minimum contribution level. However, we do know that overall around 9% of automatically enrolled workers have chosen to opt out which is significantly below original estimates; and our latest evaluation report shows that, in April 2017, approximately 5.9 million eligible employees were already meeting the April 2019 minimum contribution rates.
I am providing the following information about the impact of automatic enrolment in your constituency, as of November 2019.
In the West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine constituency, since 2012, approximately 10,000 eligible jobholders have been automatically enrolled and 1,870 employers have met their duties.
Automatic Enrolment Evaluation Report 2018, available via the following weblink: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/764964/Automatic_Enrolment_Evaluation_Report_2018.pdf.
The Pensions Regulator’s data on Automatic enrolment declaration of compliance by constituency, available via the following weblink: https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/document-library/research-and-analysis/data-requests
Asked by: Andrew Bowie (Conservative - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she next plans to meet with her counterparts in the Scottish Government to discuss that Government's progress on the timetable for the devolution of social security powers.
Answered by Lord Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Joint Ministerial Working Group on Welfare is attended by Ministers from both Governments, including the Secretary of State, and was set up to oversee the devolution of social security powers. The next meeting is due to take place before the summer recess.
The Secretary of State also answered questions from the Scottish Government’s Social Security Committee at Holyrood on 16 April, regarding the timetable for the devolution of social security powers. In addition, meetings and conversations take place on an ad hoc basis between DWP and Scottish Government Ministers to discuss progress and related matters.
Asked by: Andrew Bowie (Conservative - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans the Government has to assess the management of the devolved elements of Universal Credit to the Scottish Government.
Answered by Lord Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Universal Credit Scottish Flexibilities, now also known as “Universal Credit Scottish choices”, were made available to all Universal Credit full service claimants living in Scotland from 31 January 2018. They allow for claimants to choose to be paid twice monthly, and to choose to have the relevant housing costs in their award paid to their landlord. The Universal Credit Scottish Flexibilities are a matter for the Scottish Government as part of the Scotland Act 2016 and is their policy.
Claimants retain the ability to have their payments made monthly, and to keep control of their finances by paying their landlord themselves. We believe this more effectively mirrors work and supports claimants back into work.
We are working closely with the Scottish Government and have concluded a working level agreement, which includes the provision of agreed management information. We also have a Joint Implementation Group which is a forum for the Scottish Government and DWP to work collaboratively on delivering Universal Credit flexibilities in Scotland.
Asked by: Andrew Bowie (Conservative - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the cost of introducing universal annual uprating to the state pensions of British pensioners living abroad.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The UK State Pension is a contributory based pension payable worldwide, without regard to nationality, to those who meet the eligibility criteria. But it is uprated abroad only where there is a legal requirement to do so - for example, where UK State Pension recipients are living within the European Economic Area, Switzerland and Gibraltar or in countries where there is a reciprocal agreement that provides for uprating of the UK State Pension. This is a longstanding policy which has remained consistent for around 70 years. It has been the policy of consecutive Governments of all persuasions. It is estimated that the cost of up-rating state pensions would increase each year by over £0.5 billion per year if all pensions in payment were increased to current levels in the UK.