Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people have signed up to the Payment Exception Service.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Department can confirm that there were 68,546 active Payment Exception Service records at the end of April. These are records that received a payment during April.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the average time for calls to be answered by the Payment Exception Service helpline since the beginning of this year; and what is the target time for answering calls to the Payment Exception Service helpline.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The average time for calls to be answered is 10:32 minutes. This average is taken from calls received by the helpline between January until end of April. The latest in month average for April was 6:52 minutes.
The Payment Exception Service helpline is managed by a supplier who do not contractually have a call target time, however each month the customer response times are reviewed taking into account both the nature of the customer call and ways to improve responses for customers.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote the new Payment Exception Service for those who can no longer receive payment via the Post Office card.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Payment Exception Service is not actively promoted. The department policy is to pay claimants and pension recipients directly into a transactional account of their choice such as a bank account, building society account, credit union account, internet-based account, or a basic bank account.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to amend the British Sign Language Bill to extend its provisions to Northern Ireland; and if they have no such plans, whether they intend to introduce a British sign language law in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Government is committed to supporting all people with a disability, including deaf people, to lead fulfilled, independent lives. For D/deaf people, we recognise that this should include the ability to communicate with others through British Sign Language (BSL) or other forms of deaf communication.
The Minister for Disabled People has been working closely with Rosie Cooper MP to support the aims and development of her Private Members Bill to promote BSL. The Bill does not extend to Northern Ireland, in recognition of the existence of both British and Irish Sign Language among the Northern Irish D/deaf community. The Northern Ireland Executive proposes to take forward its own bill recognising both of these languages.
This decision also reflects the territorial scope of the Equality Act 2010, which is limited to Great Britain.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what options are available to individuals in receipt of a state pension or benefits who do not wish to open a bank account after the Post Office Card Account service is discontinued.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Department for Work and Pensions preferred method of payment for all benefits is into a bank, building society or credit union account. For customers who are unable to open or manage a mainstream account or choose not to open an account the Department will offer an alternative Payment Exception Service to allow continued access to cash payments across all locations (including suburban and rural locations).
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they sought to renew their current contract with the Post Office to provide accounts for the payment of state pensions and benefits at a lower price.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The contract with Post Office Limited is due to expire in November 2021 with an option to extend for a maximum of up to 3 years. The Department for Work and Pensions is working with Post Office Limited to agree exit timescales and arrangements. There is no option to replace Post Office Card Account once the current contract ends. The replacement service will be procured in line with public procurement regulations to ensure open and fair commercial competition.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consultation they conducted with pensioner organisations regarding the decision not to renew their contract with the Post Office to provide accounts for the payment of state pensions and benefits.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Department for Work and Pensions’ has communicated with external organisations including Pension Organisations to update on contract end arrangements and we will continue to use external communication routes to provide updates on the timings and customer communication arrangements surrounding closure of the Post Office card account.
The Departments preferred method of payment for all benefits and pensions is mainstream account, such as a bank, building society or credit union account. This provides individuals access to useful products and services that better meets their needs, for example, the ability to send and receive payments. We will continue to encourage customers to convert to mainstream accounts ahead of contract end.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many cases have been raised with her Department since the commemoration of the Child Support (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2018 where a paying parent that is habitually resident in the UK, but has earnings and tax liabilities abroad, has effectively reduced their maintenance to zero; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not hold this data.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether a paying parent is able to decide that they do not need to make child maintenance payments when their income and tax liability is derived overseas but are resident in the UK.
Answered by Will Quince
If a paying parent is found to be habitually resident in the UK, the Child Maintenance Service has jurisdiction to perform a calculation, once a legal liability to pay child maintenance is established. The maintenance calculation will be based on information held by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) about their earnings for the most recent complete tax year.
Access to income information reported by HMRC allows us to capture a much wider range of income types received by paying parents, including income from property, savings and investments (including dividends) and other miscellaneous income. In December 2018 we introduced new powers which also enable us to target complex earners via a calculation of notional income based on their assets.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Child Maintenance Service's Financial Investigations Unit has the power in cases where the paying parent's assets and/ or income are outside the UK to investigate foreign (a) tax returns and (b) bank accounts.
Answered by Will Quince
The Child Maintenance Service Financial Investigations Unit in either scenario (a) or (b) has no powers where paying parents are outside of the UK. In terms of tax returns we do ask Paying Parents that we believe are overseas for their tax status and details of tax payments. The Department has no powers to compel if a response is not received. However, rigorous checks are undertaken to confirm that the Paying Parent is not resident in the UK.