Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints relating to the equalisation of the state pension age investigation case managers at the office of the Independent Case Examiner are investigating; and what the average waiting time for such a complaint lodged with the Independent Case Examiner to be allocated to an investigation case manager was in the last 12 months.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Investigation case managers at the Independent Case Examiner’s Office are currently investigating 35 complaints relating to the equalisation of the state pension age. In the period March 2017 to February 2018 the average waiting time for complaints relating to the equalisation of the state pension age to be allocated to an investigation case manager was 39 weeks.
Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many independent case managers at the office of the Independent Case Examiner are working on cases relating to complaints on the equalisation of the state pension age.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Independent Case Examiner’s Office has 3 investigation case managers working on cases relating to complaints on the equalisation of the state pension age.
Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken has been for the office of the Independent Case Examiner to respond to a complaint relating to the equalisation of the state pension age in the last 12 months.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
In the period March 2017 to February 2018 it took an average of 45 weeks for the Independent Case Examiner’s Office to conclude investigations into complaints about the equalisation of state pension age, from the point at which the complaint was accepted for examination.
Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2018 to Question 125898, on Personal Independence Payment: Mental Health, whether additional funding will be made available as part of her Department's Annual Managed Expenditure to pay for personal independence payment back-payments.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Department’s Annually Managed Expenditure budget is set through the annual Main and Supplementary Estimates process. It is demand led and set at a sufficient level to cover DWP’s expected welfare spend, including PIP benefit payments to individual claimants and any back payments due.
Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, from which budget any back payments due to personal independence payment claimants will be funded.
Answered by Sarah Newton
PIP benefit payments to individual claimants, including any back payments, come from DWP’s Annual Managed Expenditure.
Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to bring forward proposals to factor unearned income into child maintenance payment plans.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Child Maintenance Scheme already allows for a paying parent’s unearned income to be taken into account within a child maintenance calculation.
Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Schedule 14 and Section 24 of the Pension Act 2014, how many employees have been affected by the introduction of the statutory over-ride which provides for employers who sponsor contracted-out occupational pensions schemes to pass on increases in national insurance contributions to employees.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department does not currently collect this information.
Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
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 number of businesses which are planning to pass on the increase in their National Insurance contributions from April 2016 to their employees.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department does not currently collect this information.
Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will provide a breakdown of the main reasons why applications to the National Enterprise Allowance scheme were turned down in each of the last five years.
Answered by Priti Patel
The New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) is a voluntary scheme. Eligible claimants will be referred to one of our contracted NEA providers who will assess their business idea for viability and sustainability. Claimants who are not accepted onto the scheme can be re-referred at a later date.
We do not hold the data on how many people are rejected by our providers.
Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications to the National Enterprise Allowance scheme were rejected in each of the last five years.
Answered by Priti Patel
The New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) is a voluntary scheme. Eligible claimants will be referred to one of our contracted NEA providers who will assess their business idea for viability and sustainability. Claimants who are not accepted onto the scheme can be re-referred at a later date.
We do not hold the data on how many people are rejected by our providers.