Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to ensure that reasonable adjustments are made for people who are unable to use the online system for Universal Credit application and migration.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
Anyone who requires help making their claim online can call our Freephone helpline to find out what help and support is available. Claimants can also access the internet for free at their local Jobcentre, Council or library. If new claimants, or those who have experienced a change in circumstances resulting in their migration to Universal Credit, need more intensive or specific support, help is available through our current Universal Support Assisted Digital Service. This provides bespoke help, support and skills for claimants to make and maintain their digital account online.
As part of the design process for managed migration, we are considering different approaches for how to best migrate claimants onto Universal Credit. We are currently working closely with a large and diverse range of stakeholders to design migration processes that work for everyone and which most effectively support those who will need more help.
Universal Credit has been designed with accessibility in mind and we are committed to providing personalised support for all claimants, including vulnerable groups, so we ensure that we make reasonable adjustments to meet claimant’s individual needs to allow them to access our services and information. This means that for example, the Department can communicate with customers in a variety of different formats such as Braille, audio, large print, or by arranging for a member of staff to visit the customer in their home.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to conduct an impact assessment of the proposed managed migration process to Universal Credit; if so, whether they will publish that assessment; and if so, when.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
In our response the Social Security Advisory Committee on 5 November 2018 we committed to conducting detailed Equality Assessments of migration plans. This is an iterative process and will be fully evaluated with equality impacts reassessed in accordance with the evaluation. We will publish an assessment of the impacts of managed migration prior to increasing the scale.
We routinely publish reviews of Universal Credit. These include the Universal Credit Impact Assessment (December 2012) and the Universal Credit Programme Full Business Case Summary (June 2018), which sets out the rationale for Universal Credit as well as the financial impacts it is expected to have.
We plan to publish a full evaluation of Universal Credit when it has been fully implemented.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what analysis they have undertaken into the accessibility needs of disabled people due to undergo the managed migration process as part of the move to Universal Credit.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
The Department is committed to ensuring that all claimants are fully supported during the managed migration process. We are currently working closely with a large and diverse range of stakeholders, including those supporting disabled people, to design processes that work for everyone and most effectively support those who will need help during migration.
We have said that we will begin managed migration on a small scale in 2019 to pilot our processes and ensure that they are working, adapting them and building on feedback before we begin to take on larger volumes of claimants.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to require employers to report annually on actions they, or their agents, have taken to verify that contributions made on behalf of staff to auto-enrolment pension schemes are (1) correct, and (2) have been amended if they were found to be incorrect; and if not, what discussions they have had with the Pensions Regulator about introducing such a requirement.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
I refer the noble Baroness to my answer of 18 December. The regulatory regime is designed so that errors can be identified and material failures can be reported, the Pensions Regulator can then require restitution; and, where necessary, make use of its enforcement powers. The Government keeps all aspects of automatic enrolment under regular review but has no plans to make changes to the compliance framework at this time.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the total annual cost to taxpayers of paying the annual £10 Christmas bonus to pensioners.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
In 2017/18 a total of £126 million was paid to pensioners by the government and taxpayers for the pensioners Christmas bonus.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to ask the Pensions Regulator to require regular reconciliation and reporting on accuracy of auto-enrolment pensions data.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
Automatic enrolment has been a great success, with over 9.9 million employees enrolled and more than 1.3 million employers having met their duties to date. Government has put in place a robust, proportionate compliance framework. This is administered by The Pensions Regulator, and includes detailed regulatory guidance about how to comply with the law. An employer is required to select a qualifying pension scheme; enrol qualifying staff into that scheme, and deduct any contributions payable under automatic enrolment.
Qualifying pension schemes for automatic enrolment are subject to the same regulatory framework as all trust-based workplace pension schemes, also overseen by The Pensions Regulator. The Regulator has published codes of practice on its website setting out how trustees of defined contribution pension schemes and managers of personal pension schemes should monitor the payment of contributions; provide information to help members check their contributions; and report material payment failures to the Regulator.
The regulatory regime is designed so that errors can be identified and material failures can be reported, the Regulator can then require restitution; and, where necessary, make use of its enforcement powers. The Government keeps all aspects of automatic enrolment under regular review but has no plans to make changes to the compliance framework at this time.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the total annual cost to taxpayers of paying the Age Addition to state pensions for pensioners over age 80.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
The estimated cost to the tax payer of government paying the age addition to the State Pension for people over 80 for the tax year 17/18 was £44.8 million.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much of the total cost of paying the Age Addition to pensioners is spent on administration.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
Pensioners receive an additional 25p per week following their 80th birthday, this is known as Age Addition, and is payable with State Pension. The cost of doing this is not separately identifiable from the administration costs of State Pension
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that pension data is accurate and reliable before it is loaded onto a Pensions Dashboard.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
The Pensions Dashboard feasibility study was published on the 3 of December and can be found attached. The consultation runs to January 2019 and all interested parties are invited to respond.
All pension providers have a responsibility to maintain high quality member data. Any activity to maintain or improve data quality will need to be progressed by providers before their data can be used on dashboards. There is already a significant amount of on-going work among providers of different types of schemes, in many cases working with The Pensions Regulator, to improve data quality.
The proposed industry delivery group will work with providers and schemes, including with the regulators where necessary, to set data standards and ensure that work takes place to meet these.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much of the total cost of paying the Christmas bonus to all pensioners is spent on administration.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
Both Pensioners and working age people in receipt of certain benefits receive the Christmas Bonus. Christmas Bonus payments are usually automatically generated based on receipt of a qualifying benefit. The cost of doing this is not separately identifiable from the administrative costs of the qualifying benefits.