Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on raising the level of the personal tax-free allowance in line with the basic state pension.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The DWP Secretary of State engages regularly with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. As the Minister for Pensions, I also serve as a Parliamentary Secretary at HM Treasury. Currently the Personal Allowance, which is the amount an individual can earn before paying tax, is higher than the full rates of both the basic and new State Pensions. This means pensioners whose income is solely the full new State Pension or basic State Pension will not pay any income tax.
The previous Government made the decision to freeze the income tax Personal Allowance at its current level of £12,570 until April 2028. At our first Budget, we decided not to extend the freeze on personal tax thresholds.
Under the previous Government the vast majority of pensioners already pay Income Tax. When individuals’ wider income was taken into account in 2022/23 over 80% of pensioners had an income over the Personal Allowance Tax Threshold.
This Government is absolutely committed to supporting pensioners and giving them the dignity and security they deserve in retirement.
Over 12 million pensioners will benefit from our commitment to protect the Triple Lock which is set to increase spending on the State Pension by around £31 billion and will increase people’s yearly State Pensions by up to £1,900 this Parliament.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether there are any requirements for civil servants to book a desk in advance in order to attend the office in person in each of (a) their Department's office workplaces and (b) the arm’s length bodies of their Department.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department currently has a formal digital desk booking tool - in a limited number of locations - which allows colleagues to book a desk in advance of attending the office, if they wish to do so. However, there is no requirement for colleagues to book a desk in advance in order to attend the office in person. There is no formal desk booking tool in place at the remaining DWP locations.
The Department’s ALBs have their own procedures for booking a desk:
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 13 November 2024 to Question 13145 on DWP: Buildings, how many staff were in attendance in Caxton House on average in the last week for which figures are available.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have the data that you have requested for week commencing 2nd December 2024 (02/12/24 – 06/12/24).
The average attendance per day for Caxton House this week is 623.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October 2024 to Question 9286 on Department for Work and Pensions: Civil Servants, how many individual desks were occupied in her Department’s HQ office in the most recent four weeks for which figures are available; and how many staff assigned to that HQ workplace attended the office in person on average in the same period.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Office occupancy data for the period July - September has been published, with further publications on a quarterly basis. The data is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-hq-occupancy-data
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October 2024, to Question 9286, on Civil Servants, how many civil servants are assigned to work in her Department's headquarters in London; and how many individual desks are available in the headquarters office.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of 31st October 2024, there are 2,357 paid members of staff with Caxton House – London recorded as their place of work.
There are 1,050 desks allocated to DWP in Caxton House.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many civil servants are assigned to work in each of her Department's offices; and how many desks are available in each office.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP has over 800 sites where staff are assigned. Gathering and collating data on staffing numbers and desks from each site would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of desks were occupied in each of her Department’s offices in the most recent four weeks for which figures are available; and how many staff attended each office in person in the same period.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Data regarding the number of staff attending each site is not held on our central system. Details are held at individual team level by line managers and as such we would have to contact all line managers for input. As the Department does not keep this information centrally, to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much was spent on (a) new furniture and fittings and (b) other refurbishment of Ministerial offices in her Department since the dissolution of the last Parliament; and on what items this was spent.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
I can confirm that there has been nil investment on (a) new furniture and fittings and (b) other refurbishment of Ministerial Offices for the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions since the dissolution of the last Parliament.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who will be affected by the change is eligibility criteria for the winter fuel payment in the Bridgwater constituency.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
It is estimated that around 19,200 pensioners in Bridgwater Constituency (2024 boundaries) will be impacted by the decision to amend the eligibility criteria for the Winter Fuel Payment. This is based on February 2024 Pension Credit statistics which are available via DWP Stat-Xplore and the Winter Fuel Payment statistics for winter 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) which are available via GOV.UK.
This estimation is calculated by subtracting the number of people claiming Pension Credit in Bridgwater Constituency from the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients in Bridgwater Constituency. It is possible to use the Pension Credit statistics, to give a minimum estimate of the number who may be eligible for Winter Fuel Payments. Therefore, the above estimation is essentially the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients who are not claiming Pension Credit pre-policy change, as an estimate of those who will no longer receive the Winter Fuel Payment.
Please note that the above estimation would not take into account any potential increase in Pension Credit take-up that we might see as a result of the Government’s Pension Credit Awareness Campaign. We do not have data on those additional Pension Credit claims by Parliamentary constituencies or Local Authorities.
The published Pension Credit figures refer to households, so the number of individuals in respect of whom Pension Credit is paid will be higher (i.e. taking account of households where a claimant has a partner and / or dependents.)
In addition, while Pension Credit claimants constitute the majority of those that will be eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment, pensioners who claim other qualifying means-tested benefits will also be eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment. It is not, however, possible to include those on other qualifying means-tested benefits in these figures.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
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 her Department's campaign to promote Pension Credit on the number of successful applications.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The latest available data published on the 27 September [Weekly Pension Credit claims received from 1 April 2024 to 22 September 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)] shows that the Department received around 74,400 Pension Credit claims in the 8 weeks since the Winter Fuel Payment announcement on 29 July. This is compared to around 29,500 Pension Credit claims in the 8 weeks preceding the announcement. This represents a 152% increase in Pension Credit claims.
Data on the number of successful applications is not currently available.