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 have fallen below the auto enrolment threshold in each year since that policy was introduced.
Answered by Steve Webb
Under the Pensions Act 2008, the automatic enrolment earnings trigger is reviewed by the Secretary of State every year, and revised if necessary. Since automatic enrolment was introduced in October 2012, two annual reviews to the trigger have been conducted. The table shows the impact of changes to the earnings trigger.
Earnings trigger revised | Number of individuals in eligible target group excluded | |||
From | To | |||
2012/13 | £8,105 | 2013/14 | £9,440 | 420,000 |
2013/14 | £9,440 | 2014/15 | £10,000 | 170,000 |
Table 1: Impact of changes to the automatic enrolment earnings trigger in each of the two annual reviews since the policy was introduced.
Note: The figures refer to the eligible target group in the private sector. This includes individuals aged 22 to the State Pension age who earn above the earnings trigger and are not in a qualifying pension scheme.
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, whether he proposes that his planned charge cap on workplace pensions from April 2015 will apply to new collective defined contribution schemes.
Answered by Steve Webb
The Government's Defined Ambition Bill will bring new forms of collective pension arrangements to the UK, and it is vital that member protection, good governance and fair charges remain at the heart of this system.
Details of how any charge cap may be applied to Collective Defined Contribution schemes will be in place before this legislation is commenced.
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 are below the earnings threshold for auto enrolment into a workplace pension in each (a) region, (b) constituent part of the UK and (c) parliamentary constituency.
Answered by Steve Webb
The information is not available in the format requested.
Asked by: Gregg McClymont (Labour - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people are employed by HM Revenue and Customs in regional post rooms at each location in the UK.
Answered by David Gauke
As requested please find detailed below staff numbers employed in HMRC Regional Post Rooms employed solely in post room activities.
Shipley 45
Cardiff 65
Bootle 35
Newcastle 98
Cumbernauld 46
I also refer the Honourable Gentleman to my answer on 12 May 2014.
Asked by: Gregg McClymont (Labour - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the number of staff required at HM Revenue and Customs in Cumbernauld following his Department's decision to award the mail management contract to the EDM Group.
Answered by David Gauke
The timetable for implementation is still being finalised, HMRC does not yet have details of how and when teams currently handling post will be impacted.
Asked by: Gregg McClymont (Labour - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what consultation his Department had with HM Revenue and Customs staff prior to awarding the mail management contract to EDM Group.
Answered by David Gauke
Regular consultation took place between HMRC and staff representatives throughout the process up to the point the decision was made to go out to tender for a provider of scanning services to HMRC.
Asked by: Gregg McClymont (Labour - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the savings to the public purse provided by the recent award of the mail management contract to the EDM Group.
Answered by David Gauke
Over the three year contract term it is estimated that there is a minimum £8.9m saving to the public purse when comparing the contract cost with an in house provision.
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 HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the PCS Union on the future of HM Revenue and Customs Debt Management and Banking operations.
Answered by David Gauke
Details of Ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/minister_hospitality.htm.