Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information her Department holds on the number of window cleaners electrocuted whilst using water-fed poles in each year for which records are available.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Member to the previous reply PQ 5554
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make a comparative assessment of the impact of (a) industrial injury compensation for civilians and (b) military service compensation on (i) the awarding of benefits and (ii) tax treatment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no plans to make such an assessment.
The precise treatment of compensation payments depends on the details of the individual scheme (whether industrial, military or other) will depend on the benefit concerned. Tax treatment is a matter for HMRC not DWP.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Health and Safety Executive hold information on the number of electrocutions caused by the use of water-fed poles in window cleaning.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) places duties on employers, the self-employed and people in control of work premises (the Responsible Person) to report work-related fatalities, certain injuries, occupational diseases and specified dangerous occurrences (near misses). Reports are made via a dedicated RIDDOR submission form.
An electrocution that occurred during window cleaning being carried out as a ‘work activity’ (as opposed to by the homeowner) would be reportable under RIDDOR as a work-related fatality.
The Health and Safety Executive collects information on deaths from contact with electricity in the category of ‘building and industrial cleaning activities’. However, it does not collect specific information relating to electrocutions caused by the use of water-fed poles in window cleaning.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance the Health and Safety Executive issues on the safe usage of water-fed poles for window cleaning.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
To help businesses comply with the law, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides general guidance on health and safety as well as targeted guidance for higher-risk industries and activities. HSE does not seek to provide guidance for all industries and activities as it is often the case that others are more knowledgeable or better placed to provide such guidance.
HSE produces generic guidance for the cleaning industry covering a range of topics such as manual handling, control of hazardous substances, and slips and trips, all of which have relevance to window cleaners. HSE does not however issue specific guidance on the safe usage of water-fed poles.
The window cleaning industry, in collaboration with HSE, has published two pieces of guidance for the safe use of water-fed poles: ‘Safety in window cleaning using Waterfed Pole Systems’ and ‘Window cleaning with water-fed poles’. Both are free to download from the website of the Federation of Window Cleaners (www.windowcleaning.org.uk).
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the cost of a real terms increase of (a) 1.5 and (b) 2.5 per cent in the basic state pension in each year to 2025.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The following table shows forecasts of Basic State Pension expenditure with
(1) Triple lock uprating using Budget 2016 uprating assumptions
(2) Real terms increase of 1.5% (CPI + 1.5%) using Budget 2016 CPI assumptions
(3) Real terms increase of 2.5% (CPI + 2.5%) using Budget 2016 CPI assumptions
Basic State Pension Expenditure, Budget 2016, under various uprating schemes from 2017/18 to 2020/21, £ billion
| 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | |
(1) BSP expenditure, Budget 2016 | 69.0 | 68.5 | 68.5 | 68.6 | 68.2 |
|
(2) BSP expenditure uprated by CPI + 1.5% | 69.0 | 68.2 | 67.9 | 68.1 | 67.7 |
|
(3) BSP expenditure uprated by CPI + 2.5% | 69.0 | 68.9 | 69.2 | 70.1 | 70.3 |
|
Forecasts to 2025 are not available as the most recent long-term projections were published in summer 2015 and use different uprating assumptions and different underlying population projections to these Budget 2016 based forecasts.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the estimated projected cost is of (a) the basic state pension and (b) additional pensioner benefits by benefit for (i) the lifetime of the current Parliament and (ii) 2020 to 2025.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The table below shows the estimated projected costs of pensioner benefits:
DWP Benefit Expenditure directed at pensioners, Budget 2016 forecast, £ million
2016/17 |
| 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | ||
Attendance Allowance | 5,534 | 5,615 | 5,780 | 6,039 | 6,363 |
|
| |
Bereavement Benefits | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
| |
Carer's Allowance | 39 | 37 | 37 | 38 | 31 |
|
| |
Christmas Bonus - contributory | 124 | 124 | 123 | 122 | 121 |
|
| |
Cold Weather Payments | 72 | 74 | 75 | 75 | 76 |
|
| |
Disability Living Allowance | 4,446 | 3,896 | 3,325 | 3,061 | 2,896 |
|
| |
Financial Assistance Scheme | 214 | 226 | 238 | 250 | 259 |
|
| |
Funeral Expenses Payments | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 |
|
| |
Housing Benefit | 6,243 | 5,866 | 5,573 | 5,348 | 5,352 |
|
| |
Industrial injuries benefits | 515 | 505 | 504 | 509 | 489 |
|
| |
Mesothelioma 2008 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
|
| |
Over-75 TV Licence | 631 | 653 | 468 | 247 | 0 |
|
| |
Pension Credit | 5,751 | 5,516 | 5,317 | 5,292 | 5,281 |
|
| |
Personal Independence Payment | 661 | 1,319 | 1,729 | 1,957 | 2,179 |
|
| |
Pneumoconiosis 1979 | 45 | 45 | 45 | 45 | 44 |
|
| |
Severe Disablement Allowance | 126 | 120 | 117 | 115 | 113 |
|
| |
State Pension | 91,677 | 94,054 | 97,222 | 100,297 | 103,339 |
|
| |
of which basic element |
| 69,023 | 68,468 | 68,516 | 68,610 | 68,189 |
| |
of which earnings-related element ("Additional Pension", "SERPS" or "S2P") |
| 18,139 | 17,841 | 17,738 | 17,784 | 17,676 |
| |
of which Graduated Retirement Benefit |
| 2,170 | 2,110 | 2,068 | 2,041 | 1,999 |
| |
of which lump sums (covering all contributory elements) |
| 738 | 733 | 655 | 550 | 451 |
| |
of which new State Pension (excluding protected payments) |
| 1,430 | 4,550 | 7,726 | 10,664 | 14,242 |
| |
of which new State Pension Protected Payments (including inherited elements) |
| 82 | 252 | 415 | 538 | 668 |
| |
of which non-contributory ("Category D") |
| 96 | 100 | 103 | 109 | 114 |
| |
State Pension Transfers | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
|
| |
Winter Fuel Payments | 2,059 | 2,022 | 1,988 | 1,970 | 1,959 |
|
| |
Total Expenditure directed at pensioners | 118,174 | 120,100 | 122,570 | 125,393 | 128,529 |
|
| |
Projections of benefit expenditure to 2025, based on Budget 2015 assumptions and earlier population projections are available at:
with more detail at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/432576/long-term-projections-pensioner-benefits-tables-2015.ods. These are not directly comparable to the numbers provided in this answer due to differing uprating assumptions and underlying population projections.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have opted out of workplace pensions in each month since the inception of that scheme.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
Since automatic enrolment began rolling out in 2012, DWP has collected data on the proportion of automatically enrolled employees opting out of schemes via its Employers’ Pension Provision (EPP) survey, which is run every two years. In 2013, the EPP survey found that the proportion of employees who had opted out of, or left, a scheme after being automatically enrolled was between nine and ten per cent. The 2015 EPP survey findings were similar, with nine per cent of automatically enrolled workers having chosen to opt out.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many officials employed by the Child Maintenance Service are responsible for (a) identifying and (b) supporting victims of (i) domestic and (ii) financial abuse.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
During the Child Maintenance Service application process, clients can identify to us that they were subject to domestic violence, and during the process of establishing payment mechanisms we can help with discussing accounts that have no traceable characteristics. These functions are carried out in Applications and New Case teams. However, all caseworkers across both the Child Maintenance Service and Child Support Agency are trained to be sensitive and to take appropriate action, such as signposting to relevant support organisations. As at 30 September 2016, there were over 6500 dedicated caseworkers working across all child maintenance schemes, which excludes team leaders and all managers who would also be able to undertake similar signposting as required.