Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of people who have benefited from pensions auto-enrolment are (a) women and (b) men.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
10.4 million workers have been automatically enrolled into workplace pension by more than 1.4 million employers. By 2019/20 an estimated extra £18.6 billion a year is estimated to go into workplace pensions as a result of Automatic Enrolment. Automatic Enrolment has reversed the decline in workplace pension saving.
Automatic Enrolment was designed specifically to help groups who historically were poorly served or excluded from workplace pension saving, such as women and lower earners. It is equalising workplace pension participation among eligible men and women. In 2017, 81 per cent of eligible men and 80 per cent of eligible women in the private sector were saving into a workplace pension. This compares with 43 per cent and 40 per cent respectively in the private sector in 2012.
The Government’s 2017 review of Automatic Enrolment https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/668972/print-ready-automatic-enrolment-review-2017-maintaining-the-momentum.pdf
set out our ambition for the mid-2020s, with proposals to strengthen financial resilience for traditionally excluded groups including women.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of personal independence payment assessments that have been video-recorded in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Sarah Newton
There is currently no option available for Personal Independence Payment claimants to have their assessments video recorded. However, as part of our commitment to improve the Personal Independence Payment assessment process, we are progressing options to video record PIP face to face assessments. Following comprehensive work over the summer, we are designing a live pilot, due to begin later this year. The pilot will inform any wider full roll out decisions.