Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the impact of 53 week rent-years on rent payment schedules for Universal Credit claimants; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of ensuring that payments adequately match claimants’ renting costs.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Universal Credit always converts weekly amounts to monthly sums using 52 weeks. The legitimacy of this approach was confirmed by the High Court having been tested via a judicial review.
Every five or six years, weekly tenants may have a rent charging year containing 53 charging days. This will not apply in all cases and some claimants will not have a 53-week charging year during the life of their benefit claim.
Most people in work are paid monthly, as is Universal Credit, and they budget for their outgoings on a monthly basis. Weekly rental liabilities do not map directly onto a monthly cycle and this creates budgeting complexities for tenants. They will be required to make only four payments of rent in some months but five payments in others even though their monthly income remains constant. This problem exists in all rent charging years for those with a weekly liability, not just those with 53 Mondays.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance her Department issues to Access to Work case managers on reducing costs.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
At present no guidance has been issued explicitly advising Access to Work Case Managers on reducing costs. There is however guidance related to:
which provide guidance to case managers on reasonable costs and to provide value for money.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of exempting military compensation as income to ensure that veterans can still qualify for Pension Credit.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
I refer the honourable member to the answer given on 18 November 2024 to question UIN 14156.
The first £10 of any War Pension payment or Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) award made due to injury or disablement is disregarded in Pension Credit. Income is calculated on a weekly basis, so the disregard is £10 per week.
Four additions to the War Disablement Pension are completely disregarded: Constant Attendance Allowance; Mobility Supplement; Severe Disablement Occupational Allowance; and dependency increases for anyone other than the applicant or her / his partner.
War Pensions and AFCS awards are a qualifying income for the Savings Credit element of Pension Credit, which is available to those who reached State Pension age before April 2016.
Armed Forces Independence Payments are fully disregarded in Pension Credit and can also allow the recipient to qualify for an additional disability amount.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Rodenticide Stewardship Scheme in reducing wildlife exposure to rat poisons; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of taking further steps to combat criminal use of rat poisons to kill birds of prey.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Rodenticides Stewardship Scheme was developed by The Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use UK to promote responsible use and is overseen by the Government Oversight Group for Rodenticide Stewardship (GOG), chaired by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The GOG is conducting a review of rodenticide stewardship, under which it will consider all appropriate evidence. The detailed work of this review is expected to be completed in 2025.
Wildlife crime is a matter for Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Welsh and Scottish Governments, and the Police. Bird of prey crime is identified by Defra as a national wildlife crime priority, and significant sanctions are available against proven perpetrators of the crime, including an unlimited fine and/or a six-month custodial sentence. HSE may also take action, where appropriate, in its role as a workplace health and safety regulator.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of providing indexation of pension rights accrued before April 1997.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
It is for sponsoring employers to decide what pension benefits they offer, provided these meet minimum standards. These benefits are set out in the scheme rules. It would not be appropriate for the Government to interfere in decisions made by individual schemes, beyond setting clear, affordable minimum standards that apply to all.
Pensions legislation does not usually apply new provisions retrospectively to rights that have already been accrued. It is generally seen to be unreasonable to add liabilities to pension schemes that could not have been taken into account in the funding assumptions that determined the contributions to be paid at the time. In some cases, the additional, unplanned liabilities could result in significant additional contributions from the sponsoring employer, and could ultimately threaten the future viability of some schemes.
It is important to achieve a balance between providing members with some measure of protection against inflation and not increasing schemes’ costs beyond a level that schemes and employers can generally afford.