Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to end the freeze on state pension payments to pensioners residing in Canada.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
UK State Pensions are up-rated overseas where there is a legal requirement to do so. There is no such requirement or agreement with Canada. This longstanding policy has been supported by successive post-war governments for over 70 years and the Government has no plans to change the policy.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Disability Unit has made of the potential merits of extending the £20 uplift to legacy benefit claimants.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Government is committed to supporting disabled people affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. The temporary Universal Credit Standard Allowance uplift was introduced to support those facing the most financial disruption due to the pandemic. There are no plans to extend this temporary uplift to legacy benefits. Claimants on legacy benefits can make a claim for Universal Credit if they believe that they will be better off.
Claimants should check their eligibility before applying to Universal Credit as legacy benefits will end when they submit their claim and they will not be able to return to them in the future. For this reason, prospective claimants are signposted to independent benefits calculators on GOV.UK. There are special arrangements for those in receipt of the Severe Disability Premium, who are now able to make a new claim to Universal Credit.
The Government will publish the National Strategy for Disabled People this year taking into account the impacts of the pandemic on disabled people. The strategy will focus on the issues that disabled people say affect them the most in all aspects of life.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people who were in receipt of disability living allowance have not migrated to personal independence payments (PIP); and whether his Department has been in contact with people who have not migrated to PIP.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
There were 274,970 claimants with entitlement to Disability Living Allowance (DLA) as of the end of May 2020 who were aged 16-64 on 8th April 2013, the day Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was introduced, who remain in scope to be invited to claim PIP. Children in receipt of DLA will continue to be invited to claim PIP on reaching age 16.
In July 2020, we started to resume some activity on reviews and reassessments where it was possible to do so safely and without compromising the delivery of new claims and change of circumstance cases, which remain our priority.
DLA claimants have been informed of the roll-out of PIP, including who is in scope to be invited, through their annual uprating letters and information published on GOV.UK.
Notes
Source: DLA Computer System
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will extend bereavement support payment to people who were cohabiting but were not married or in a civil partnership when one partner dies.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Supreme Court has ruled it incompatible with ECHR principles to provide that certain cohabitees with children are not entitled to Widowed Parent’s Allowance.
The ruling applies to Widowed Parent’s Allowance only. It does not apply to Bereavement Support Payment.
However, we are carefully considering the Court’s judgment and how the Department should proceed in the light of this. When we have looked at all the options, I will come before the House to update Parliament further on this matter.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost of state pensions to the Government as a proportion of GDP was over each of the last 30 years; and what the projected cost of state pensions as a proportion of GDP is over each of the next 30 years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The requested information is available from 1991/92 to 2045/46 in the table below:
| UK expenditure on State Pension as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) | UK expenditure on State Pension as a proportion of GDP per million claimants of State Pension | |
1991-92 | 4.0% | 0.39% | |
1992-93 | 4.0% | 0.39% | |
1993-94 | 4.0% | 0.39% | |
1994-95 | 3.9% | 0.38% | |
1995-96 | 3.9% | 0.36% | |
1996-97 | 3.8% | 0.36% | |
1997-98 | 3.8% | 0.35% | |
1998-99 | 3.9% | 0.35% | |
1999-00 | 3.9% | 0.35% | |
2000-01 | 3.8% | 0.34% | |
2001-02 | 4.0% | 0.35% | |
2002-03 | 4.0% | 0.35% | |
2003-04 | 3.9% | 0.34% | |
2004-05 | 3.9% | 0.33% | |
2005-06 | 3.9% | 0.33% | |
2006-07 | 3.8% | 0.32% | |
2007-08 | 3.9% | 0.32% | |
2008-09 | 4.2% | 0.34% | |
2009-10 | 4.6% | 0.36% | |
2010-11 | 4.5% | 0.35% | |
2011-12 | 4.7% | 0.36% | |
2012-13 | 4.9% | 0.37% | |
2013-14 | 4.8% | 0.37% | |
2014-15 | 4.8% | 0.37% | |
2015-16 | 4.9% | 0.37% | |
2016-17 | 4.8% | 0.37% | |
2017-18 | 4.8% | 0.36% | |
2018-19 | 4.8% | 0.36% | |
2019-20 | 4.7% | 0.36% | |
2020-21 | 4.6% | 0.35% | |
2021/22 | 4.7% | 0.35% | |
2022/23 | 4.8% | 0.35% | |
2023/24 | 4.9% | 0.35% | |
2024/25 | 5.0% | 0.35% | |
2025/26 | 5.1% | 0.35% | |
2026/27 | 5.2% | 0.35% | |
2027/28 | 5.2% | 0.35% | |
2028/29 | 5.2% | 0.35% | |
2029/30 | 5.4% | 0.35% | |
2030/31 | 5.5% | 0.35% | |
2031/32 | 5.6% | 0.36% | |
2032/33 | 5.8% | 0.36% | |
2033/34 | 5.9% | 0.36% | |
2034/35 | 5.9% | 0.36% | |
2035/36 | 5.9% | 0.36% | |
2036/37 | 5.9% | 0.36% | |
2037/38 | 6.1% | 0.36% | |
2038/39 | 6.2% | 0.36% | |
2039/40 | 6.3% | 0.36% | |
2040/41 | 6.4% | 0.36% | |
2041/42 | 6.4% | 0.36% | |
2042/43 | 6.5% | 0.36% | |
2043/44 | 6.5% | 0.36% | |
2044/45 | 6.6% | 0.36% | |
2045/46 | 6.6% | 0.36% |
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the letter from the Minister for Welfare Reform to the hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar dated 3 November 2014 regarding the payment of funds to people with mesothelioma, by what process he decided what costs to insurers of compensating those people were fair and appropriate.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
The Mesothelioma Act 2014 currently allows a levy to be applied to the insurance industry to fund a payment scheme for those affected by the failure of the employers’ liability insurance market to maintain adequate records.
Given that the insurers who are paying the levy to fund the Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme are not necessarily the same ones who took the premiums that paid for the historical insurance policies, the costs to them must be fair and proportionate.
Each year the levy will be estimated at a level which the Department believes is sufficient to cover the actual costs of running the Scheme. That is, the cost of its administration and the cost of the capital payments that are made to diffuse mesothelioma sufferers or their dependants. In any one year the levy will not exceed 3% of employers’ liability gross written premium as this is the point at which the insurance industry said that it would have to pass on the costs of the levy via increased premiums.
Further information on the costs of the Scheme and information about the levy and how it was calculated will be included in the first annual report on the Scheme which will be published on or before 30th November 2015.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 December 2014 to Question 217981, if he will revise the Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme fund so that people who were diagnosed with diffuse mesothelioma before 25 July 2012, or eligible dependents of such people where that eligible person has died, also receive the support provided to eligible people who were diagnosed after that date.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
The eligibility date was set as 25th July 2012 as this was the date that the Government announced it would legislate for a payment scheme, thereby creating a reasonable expectation that eligible people diagnosed with mesothelioma on or after that date would receive a payment.
If there was no start date, and the scheme paid people diagnosed in the past, the costs of the scheme would be prohibitively expensive.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in Na h-Eileanan an Iar constituency are in receipt of carer's allowance.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
Statistics on Carer’s Allowance are published at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dwp-statistics-tabulation-tool
Guidance for users is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will place in the Library calculations of the costs used in his Department's decision to exclude people diagnosed with mesothelioma before 25 July 2012 from compensation from the Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme fund.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
A copy of the report will be placed in the Library.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 November 2014 to Question 213723, if he will provide support to the applicants to the Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme fund who were diagnosed before 25 October 2014 in addition to the support provided to people who were diagnosed after that date.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
The Scheme makes payments to eligible people who were diagnosed with diffuse mesothelioma (or eligible dependants of sufferers who have died) on or after 25 July 2012.