Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to amend the Pension Protection Fund rules to allow people with pre-April 1997 pensionable service to receive increases to their pension of up to 2.5 per cent.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Pension Protection Fund is a well-established compensation scheme with cross party support. Without the Pension Protection Fund, most company insolvencies would mean that members of Defined Benefit pension schemes could be facing significant financial insecurity in retirement. The Pension Protection Fund was never intended to replicate scheme benefits in their entirety.
There are ongoing court cases relating to the Pension Protection Fund compensation and so it would be inappropriate to comment further until the final judgments have been handed down. Once the litigation is concluded we will review the position.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publicise to eligible pensioners their right to claim pension credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman
It is important to highlight that there are over 1.6 million people already claiming some £5.4 billion in Pension Credit but the Government wants to ensure that all pensioners eligible can claim the Pension Credit to which they are rightly entitled.
On a national basis the DWP targets activity on engaging with people who may be eligible to Pension Credit at pivotal stages, such as when they claim State Pension or report a change in their circumstances. The DWP uses a wide range of channels to communicate information about benefits including Pension Credit to potential customers; including information on https://gov.uk/, in leaflets and by telephone.
We know that often the best ways to reach eligible customers is through trusted stakeholders working in the community. That is why we have developed and resourced the Pension Credit toolkit which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit and contains resources for anyone working with pensioners and includes guides to Pension Credit. It also contains publicity material and guidance designed to help older people understand how they could get Pension Credit and help organisations support someone applying for Pension Credit as well as ideas for encouraging take-up.
In addition, the Pension Credit calculator https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator enables potential customer to check if they are likely to be eligible and get an estimate of what they may receive; and of course the easiest way to make a Pension Credit claim is via the Freephone number 0800 99 1234.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to ensure that state pensions for UK citizens living overseas increase at the same rate as pensions for pensioners who remain in the UK.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The UK State Pension is payable worldwide. It is up-rated for overseas residents where there is a legal requirement to do so and it is up-rated abroad at the same rate as in the UK.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has plans to increase (a) funding and (b) staffing of the Child Maintenance Service.
Answered by Will Quince
Child Maintenance Service funding and staffing is determined as part of the funding settlement that DWP receives to provide the range of services that it provides. DWP, along with all other Government Departments, is currently agreeing its budgets for the approaching Spending Review period with HM Treasury. No decisions on the level of future budgets has been agreed at this point but is expected to be resolved in the latter part of 2019.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her Department's policy to process mandatory reconsiderations for personal independence payment claims within 15 working days.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Mandatory reconsideration (MR) decisions are made without delay, but the focus is on making sure that the decision under dispute is thoroughly reviewed not on how long it takes to review it.
We are engaging with stakeholders to explore how we can improve the MR process. We have recently implemented a new approach in PIP which includes contacting claimants, where appropriate, to see if there is information that would enable us to change the decision ourselves. To support this, we are investing additional time for communication, evidence gather and review – including providing time for claimants to provide more information - which means that some cases can take longer. However, this approach supports our aim - to make the right decision as early as possible - so claimants don’t need to progress to the appeal stage.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the timeframe is for compensation to be made available to people who were entitled to a severe disability premium payment and who claimed universal credit before 16 January 2019.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Since the introduction of The Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) (SDP Gateway) Amendment Regulations 2019, which came into force on 16th January 2019, claimants who are entitled, or have been within the last month, to an award of an existing benefit that includes SDP have not been required to move to Universal Credit; even if they have experienced a relevant change in their circumstances. The draft Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019, which are currently before Parliament, make provision for SDP transitional payments for those eligible claimants who have already moved to UC and for moving existing legacy claimants onto Universal Credit and implementing transitional protection.
We are currently considering the court judgment handed down on 3 May 2019.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress he has made on the review into 1.6 million personal independent payment claims.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The administrative exercise to check whether claimants are eligible for more support under Personal Independence Payments, following the MH and RJ legal judgments, started in June 2018. DWP published management information on progress on checking potentially affected cases in December 2018. These figures showed that around 140,000 cases had been reviewed and cleared (as at 23rd November 2018). Figures are changing rapidly as we continue to check cases and progress is in line with our expectations. As part of December’s release, we committed to providing further updates at 6 monthly intervals.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance her Department issues to GPs on the provision of fit notes for patients who are undergoing an appeal for employment and support allowance.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Department provides guidance on the benefits system for GPs which is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-short-guide-to-the-benefit-system-for-general-practitioners.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to extend the eligibility for widowed parents' allowance to unmarried parents.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
We are currently considering how to proceed following the recent Supreme Court judgement which ruled it incompatible with ECHR principles to provide that cohabitees with children are not entitled to Widowed Parent’s Allowance. When we have looked at all the options, I will update Parliament further on this matter.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to make it easier for cancer patients undergoing treatment in hospital to claim universal credit.
Answered by Sarah Newton
A claimant in hospital, regardless of their condition, has a range of options open to them to support them through their Universal Credit claim if they are unable to complete it themselves online.
Those claimants who are unable to claim online are able to make their claim by telephone and in exceptional circumstances, a hospital visit may be considered. During this visit, the visiting officer will support the claimant to make a telephony claim. If the claimant requires a hospital visit, the date of the claim will be the date of first contact, even if the claimant is not actually able to complete the claim on that same day. In cases in which the claimant is unable to manage their own affairs due to mental incapability or severe physical disability an appointee can be agreed to act on behalf of the claimant in all interactions with the Department.
All claimants receive continuous tailored support through their personal work coaches and all DWP staff in customer facing roles receive training on supporting claimants that report a health condition or disability, including those claimants who report a terminal illness. The Department are committed to ensuring that terminally ill patients are treated with sensitivity and care and receive the support they need to make a claim to Universal Credit.
In addition, staff can use our District Provision Tool to signpost claimants to relevant information about local support services. This digital tool lists local and national provision and support delivered by Jobcentre Plus, Skills Funding Agency, Skills Development Scotland, Careers Wales, other providers, local authorities, and independent and volunteer organisations.