Asked by: Gregg McClymont (Labour - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people made requests of the pension tracing service to find lost pension pots in each year since May 2010; and how many of these were successful.
Answered by Steve Webb
Table below shows the total number of Pension Trace requests and those which were successful. Successful Pension Traces are where we are able to provide a customer with contact details of the pension administrator for the particular company or employer they had worked for.
1st April 10 to 31st March 11 | Total 76,453 Successful 66,586 |
1st April 11 to 31st March 12 | Total 77,757 Successful 67,068 |
1st April 12 to 31st March 13 | Total 107,335 Successful 94,354 |
1st April 13 to 31st March 14 | Total 144,169 Successful 126,904 |
Source:
The data is from the Pension Tracing System
Asked by: Gregg McClymont (Labour - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the cost to the average UK saver of delaying the pensions charge cap from April 2014 to April 2015.
Answered by Steve Webb
There has been no delay to the default fund charge cap. The Government has announced that it will put in place a charge cap set at 0.75% of funds under management for the default funds of all schemes used for automatic enrolment from April 2015. This means we will deliver on the timetable in our consultation document to have a full cap for all qualifying schemes in place by April 2015.
Asked by: Gregg McClymont (Labour - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the minimum income per annum required during an individual's working life to prevent the need to claim means-tested benefits in retirement.
Answered by Steve Webb
No such estimate has been made.
The single-tier pension will be set above the level of the Standard Minimum Guarantee for a single person. This means that for people reaching State Pension age from April 2016 onwards, anyone who has built up 35 qualifying years through National Insurance contributions and credits should have an income above the level of the basic means test, regardless of how much they earned during their working life.
Some pensioners will still require means-tested support, and at a given level of retirement income an individual's eligibility will depend on a number of factors. These include the level and nature of their housing costs, whether they are single or in a couple, whether they have additional needs associated with caring or severe disability and whether they reached State Pension age before or after the introduction of the single-tier pension.
Whether or not a particular salary level in working life would lead to an income in retirement that is high enough to avoid eligibility for any means-tested benefits will also depend on the choices an individual makes, including how much of their income to save for retirement.
Asked by: Gregg McClymont (Labour - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he plans to take to prevent private sector companies providing incentives for their employees to switch from defined benefit to defined contribution pension arrangements.
Answered by Steve Webb
We already have powers in place to legislate to ban cash incentive transfers. The incentive exercises code of good practice was created in 2012, and set out seven key principles that pension providers and their advisers must adhere to if they wish to offer their members incentives, including ensuring that members are given sufficient information to enable them to make an informed decision.
A large number of providers and independent financial advisers have signed up to the code, delivering a prompt solution to address this issue. The Government would encourage all providers to comply with the code.
Following the Budget announcement HM Treasury are currently running a consultation, “Freedom of Choice in Pensions” where it is considering whether people with a defined benefit pension should be allowed to transfer their accrued benefits into a defined contribution scheme. The outcome of this consultation will inform our thinking on what additional action, if any, the Government should take to restrict or ban pension providers from offering incentives
Asked by: Gregg McClymont (Labour - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of the planned changes to pensions on retirement incomes from private and workplace pensions.
Answered by Steve Webb
The government believes people should be trusted to make their own choices about how to use their savings to fund their retirement. These measures fundamentally change the way that people can access their retirement savings, and therefore people are free to vary the mix of income and capital they hold in retirement.
Alongside these changes, the government is taking measures to ensure everyone approaching retirement is aware of the choices they have. Pension providers and schemes will be required, by April 2015, to offer all individuals retiring with a defined contribution pension pot free and impartial face-to-face guidance on their retirement choices.
Asked by: Gregg McClymont (Labour - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people received face to face guidance from the Pension Advisory Service in each of the last five years.
Answered by Steve Webb
The Pensions Advisory Service provides information and guidance over multiple distribution channels including by telephone, web chat, online and written enquiries and face to face via outreach activity. The outreach activity includes shows, forums and similar events. All guidance is tailored to the individuals' personal circumstances.
The data for the last five years are set out in the table below:
Year | 2009/2010 | 2010/2011 | 2011/2012 | 2012/2013 | 2013/2014 |
Helpline customers Includes calls, online enquiries, webchats and 1st party complaints | 99,663 | 87,712 | 93,505 | 84,228 |
76,348 (as at 28th February)
|
Outreach work | 6,457 people spoken to at TPAS events/presentations | 7,577 | 3,786 | 1,091 | 1,400 estimate to date |
Asked by: Gregg McClymont (Labour - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of the planned changes to pensions on the investment strategy of the National Employment Savings Trust.
Answered by Steve Webb
The investment strategy for the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) is the responsibility of the NEST Trustees who will consider, if in the best interests of their members, there needs to be any change in NEST's investment approach.
Asked by: Gregg McClymont (Labour - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of the planned changes to pensions on opt-out rates of auto enrolment.
Answered by Steve Webb
The Budget announced that from April 2015, the tax rules for how people access their defined contribution pension savings will be simplified to allow individuals aged 55 or over to withdraw their savings however they wish, subject to their marginal rate of income tax.
Allowing individuals to exercise greater choice over how they access their retirement savings may mean that some people who would have previously chosen to opt out may no longer do so. This is more likely to have an effect on the choices of older workers.
Asked by: Gregg McClymont (Labour - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the upper limit will be of the amount of state pension top-up people can buy.
Answered by Steve Webb
As announced in the Budget 2014, the maximum amount of additional State Pension that individuals can obtain under the State Pension top-up scheme (Class 3A) will be £25 per week. We intend to make details available shortly of the contribution rates by age for each £1 per week of additional pension.
Asked by: Gregg McClymont (Labour - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of the top-up of state pensions for each of the next 20 financial years.
Answered by Steve Webb
Estimates were made of both the future AME expenditure and the revenue from contributions in 2015-16 and 2016-17 which would determine future state pension expenditure levels. Estimates made by the Department were certified by the Office for Budget Responsibility. Figures for the medium term impacts in cash terms were published on page 46 in Budget 2014: policy costings available at:
Further information on the long-term Exchequer impact in 2013-14 price terms is included in the table below. As noted in the policy costings document, there is uncertainty about levels of take-up of this policy. If take-up was higher than assumed both AME and Revenue would increase and if take-up was lower than assumed then both would decrease.
| AME | Revenue |
2014-15 | 0 | 0 |
2015-16 | -15 | +415 |
2016-17 | -50 | +410 |
2017-18 | -65 | 0 |
2018-19 | -65 | 0 |
2019-20 | -60 | 0 |
2020-21 | -60 | 0 |
2021-22 | -55 | 0 |
2022-23 | -55 | 0 |
2023-24 | -55 | 0 |
2024-25 | -50 | 0 |
2025-26 | -45 | 0 |
2026-27 | -45 | 0 |
2027-28 | -40 | 0 |
2028-29 | -40 | 0 |
2029-30 | -35 | 0 |
2030-31 | -35 | 0 |
2031-32 | -30 | 0 |
2032-33 | -30 | 0 |
2033-34 | -25 | 0 |
Notes to table: Figures are in £m, 2013-14 price terms, rounded to nearest £5m.