Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an estimate of the potential cost to the Exchequer of raising statutory sick pay.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Payments of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) are made by employers. Any indirect costs and benefits that would be derived to the Exchequer because of changing the rate of SSP would need to be assessed.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish a breakdown of the total payments made to civil servants in his Department for relocation costs to Government offices outside London in 2021.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the honourable member to the answer given to PQ 71333.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) consultations and (b) calls for evidence issued by his Department are closed but have not been responded to as of 12 July 2022.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not held centrally and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 June to Question 17170, if she will publish a breakdown of her Department's spending on consultants in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) publishes details about headcount and payroll costs for permanent staff and contractors on GOV.UK, monthly.
DWP workforce management information - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The DWP consultancy spend for the financial years ending 2018 through to 2022 is shown below.
2018/19 £4,446,169
2019/20 £4,570,665
2020/21 £1,284,861
2021/22 £1,041,058
DWP publishes individual contract data on all contracts valued at £10,000 and over on
Contracts Finder - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people who have been affected by the underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment and support allowance in Ashton-under-Lyne constituency.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the Rt hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of staff employed by her Department are apprentices.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Based on the last quarterly figures, produced 30 November 2019, 3.9% of DWP employees are apprentices.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department will spend on (a) the childcare element of the working tax credit and (b) the childcare element of Universal Credit in each of the next five fiscal years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
HMRC currently estimate spending around £1.1bn per annum on the childcare element of Working Tax Credit. This figure will decrease as tax credits claimants gradually move across to Universal Credit, and spending on childcare under Universal Credit will increase accordingly.
The profile of spending on childcare in Universal Credit is as follows:
| Ann. cost 18/19 | Ann. cost 19/20 | Ann. cost 20/21 | Ann. cost 21/22 | Ann. cost 22/23 | Ann. cost 23/24 |
Total cost UC Childcare | £100m | £400m | £700m | £900m | £1,100m | £1,400m |
Notes:
The figures in the table above are derived from internal DWP models, and costs have been rounded to the nearest £100 million.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
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 proportion of members of master trust pension schemes who are enrolled in schemes subject to the master trust assurance framework.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Over 90% of the total memberships within master trust schemes are in master trusts that are signed up to the master trust assurance framework.
This is a performance indicator for the Pensions Regulator and the result will be published in their next annual report and accounts.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
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 total number of members of master trust pension schemes.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Pensions Regulator publish such estimates in their ‘DC Trust: a presentation of scheme return data’ publication, which can be found at the following link for 2015-16:
This publication shows that there were 3.9m members in master trust schemes as at 31 December 2015.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to enforce section 54 of the Pensions Act 2008.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Section 54 of the Pensions Act 2008 prohibits employers from taking any action for the sole or main purpose of inducing a worker to leave a workplace pension scheme.
The Government takes potential inducement by employers very seriously. The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is responsible for all matters relating to employers’ compliance with their enrolment duties, including investigations into individual cases of potential inducement by employers.
Through automatic enrolment we are delivering a fundamental shift in workplace pension saving that is changing the way that people are enabled to save for retirement. Already 100,668 employers have completed their declaration of compliance with the Regulator, resulting in more than 6 million eligible jobholders being automatically enrolled into a qualifying pension scheme.
The law relating to inducements is an important safeguard for workers and the Regulator has statutory powers of investigation and enforcement it can use in appropriate circumstances. We are working with the Regulator to monitor the number and nature of possible inducement cases as the roll-out of automatic enrolment continues. That will enable us to judge whether the current legislation covering inducement, and the guidance and messaging provided by the Regulator, are operating effectively to protect employees, and whether change may be appropriate.