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Written Question
Pension Wise: Airdrie and Shotts
Monday 11th January 2021

Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people living in Airdrie and Shotts constituency had a Pension Wise guidance appointment by telephone or in person in the period from (a) 1 April 2019 to (b) 31 March 2020.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Money and Pensions Service publishes data on pension wise appointments across 2019-2020 here:

https://moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pension-Wise-Service-Evaluation-report-2019-2020.pdf and notes there were over 97k face to face and around 62k telephone appointments.


Written Question
Pension Wise: Strathclyde
Monday 11th January 2021

Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people living in the Strathclyde region had a Pension Wise guidance appointment by telephone or in person in the period from (a) April 2019 to (b) March 2020.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Money and Pensions Service publishes data on pension wise appointments across 2019-2020 here:

https://moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pension-Wise-Service-Evaluation-report-2019-2020.pdf and notes there were over 97k face to face and around 62k telephone appointments.


Written Question
Pension Wise: Scotland
Monday 11th January 2021

Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people living in Scotland had a Pension Wise guidance appointment (a) by telephone and (b) in person in the period from (i) April 2019 and (ii) March 2020.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Money and Pensions Service publishes data on pension wise appointments across 2019-2020 here:

https://moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pension-Wise-Service-Evaluation-report-2019-2020.pdf and notes there were over 97k face to face and around 62k telephone appointments.


Written Question
Habitual Residence Test
Thursday 17th December 2020

Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department blocks payments for social security benefit claimants requiring a habitual residence test; and if she will make a statement.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson

As part of the eligibility criteria for income related benefits claimants need to have a legal right to reside and factual habitual residence. When eligibility needs to be determined, evidence is gathered and an assessment made through the Habitual Residence Test.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: EU Nationals
Thursday 17th December 2020

Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of social security benefit claimants were EU nationals in each month for which data is available since February 2018.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Habitual Residence Test
Thursday 17th December 2020

Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of social security benefit claims were closed as a result of the claimant having failed a habitual residence test in each month for which data is available since March 2018.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson

The table below gives the number of UC claim closures due to a claimant failing the Habitual Residence Test (HRT) and the monthly percentage share of all UC claim declarations on a monthly basis from March 2018 to November 2020.

The Department only holds the requested information for Habitual Residence Tests (HRT) completed by Universal Credit (UC) full service claimants for the time period requested.

Number of closures due to failing HRT

Percentage of UC Claims in month

Mar-18

1,340

1.3%

Apr-18

1,470

1.4%

May-18

1,570

1.4%

Jun-18

1,920

1.4%

Jul-18

2,400

1.4%

Aug-18

2,400

1.3%

Sep-18

2,410

1.3%

Oct-18

3,030

1.3%

Nov-18

3,170

1.3%

Dec-18

2,770

1.4%

Jan-19

4,170

1.4%

Feb-19

4,030

1.5%

Mar-19

4,140

1.5%

Apr-19

3,500

1.3%

May-19

3,500

1.2%

Jun-19

3,310

1.1%

Jul-19

3,630

1.1%

Aug-19

3,150

1.0%

Sep-19

3,080

0.9%

Oct-19

3,470

1.2%

Nov-19

3,150

1.2%

Dec-19

2,710

1.3%

Jan-20

3,610

1.1%

Feb-20

3,010

1.2%

Mar-20

8,240

0.8%

Apr-20

11,750

1.3%

May-20

11,700

2.4%

Jun-20

8,220

2.5%

Jul-20

7,460

2.5%

Aug-20

6,710

2.5%

Sep-20

9,210

2.9%

Oct-20

11,150

3.6%

Nov-20

7,300

2.3%

Notes:

  1. We have taken the cohort of declarations and found the closures due to failing HRT within that cohort, as opposed to grouping by closure date.
  2. Figures are for households on UC, either couple or single claims, and does not represent the number of individuals within the household.
  3. Figures rounded to the nearest 10.
  4. Please note that percentages have been rounded to the nearest 0.1% and may not sum due to rounding.
  5. Figures cover claims in Great Britain only.

Written Question
Habitual Residence Test
Thursday 17th December 2020

Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of social security benefit claimants required a habitual residence test in each month for which data is available since March 2018.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson

The table below gives the total number of Habitual Residence Tests (HRT) completed by Universal Credit (UC) full service claimants since March 2018, the total number of UC claims that were declared in the same months, and the proportion of these UC claims where a HRT was completed.

The Department only holds information on the Habitual Residence Tests (HRT) completed by Universal Credit (UC) full service claimants for the time period requested.

Declared Date

Total HRTs completed

Claims made to UC

Proportion of UC claims where a HRT was completed

Mar-18

13,900

102,100

14%

Apr-18

14,200

103,500

14%

May-18

15,300

108,200

14%

Jun-18

16,600

127,100

13%

Jul-18

21,100

163,300

13%

Aug-18

22,100

167,200

13%

Sep-18

24,600

173,800

14%

Oct-18

29,600

204,700

14%

Nov-18

31,000

211,400

15%

Dec-18

26,900

168,800

16%

Jan-19

40,800

275,800

15%

Feb-19

34,600

243,100

14%

Mar-19

35,700

253,300

14%

Apr-19

32,400

236,000

14%

May-19

34,600

245,700

14%

Jun-19

32,100

240,000

13%

Jul-19

35,300

269,100

13%

Aug-19

31,500

245,500

13%

Sep-19

36,000

258,100

14%

Oct-19

37,400

236,800

16%

Nov-19

32,200

214,600

15%

Dec-19

26,500

166,200

16%

Jan-20

38,100

259,300

15%

Feb-20

32,100

208,800

15%

Mar-20

165,600

1,209,100

14%

Apr-20

173,400

985,800

18%

May-20

93,400

441,000

21%

Jun-20

59,700

283,800

21%

Jul-20

58,800

262,400

22%

Aug-20

55,500

243,600

23%

Table Notes:

  1. All figures are rounded to 100. The proportion of UC claims where a HRT was completed (%) is calculated using the unrounded figures.
  2. Data on claims made to UC are for Great Britain only. HRTs completed are for Great Britain only.
  3. The UC HRT statistics are taken from Management Information on UC Full Service claims and do not include Live Service claims for which HRT data is not available.
  4. The statistics on claims made to UC are taken from the UC Official Statistics in the ‘Claims made to Universal Credit’ table on the DWP Stat-Xplore portal.
  5. The month used in this table is the month in which the UC claim was declared.
  6. The HRT UC full service data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. The HRT data should therefore be treated with caution.

Written Question
Pensions: Direct Marketing
Tuesday 15th December 2020

Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will include online activity in the ban on pensions cold calling.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

This government is committed to safeguarding consumer savings. DWP, and other departments, have introduced measures that assist all savers to understand their choices and the possible risks of the choices they make, along with legislation to protect those most vulnerable to scams. This includes the ban on cold calling, which was introduced January 2019. Further action is being taken legislatively and operationally.

To help protect people from pension scams, clause 125 in the Pension Schemes Bill is being introduced, following extensive consultation and debate. It will allow government to introduce measures to limit the statutory right to transfer.

The Bill will ensure that a range of consumer protections will apply to all pension savers, regardless of what avenue, such as online or via social media, is used by potential scammers to contact them with regards to their pension savings. The powers in this Bill will enable government in certain circumstances (red flags) to remove the statutory right to transfer. The Government is working cross department and with industry & regulators to determine red flags including the use of online channels to make contact with pension savers.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), plays a key role in protecting the UK from cybercrime and fraud. The NCSC’s Active Cyber Defence (ACD) programme tackles cyber-attacks in an automated and scalable way, to improve national resilience. This includes a takedown service which searches for and identifies malicious websites. Where found, it removes them at source so they cannot cause further harm to the public.

To complement the ACD programme, the NCSC recently launched the Suspicious Email Reporting Service, which allows the public to flag suspicious emails to the NCSC simply by forwarding them to report@phishing.gov.uk. They are then analysed and malicious content is taken down where found.

The Government continues to raise public awareness of scams through ongoing communications directly from DWP and with other organisations. Joint and independent communications from the FCA and tPR spelling out the dangers, what to watch out for and giving clarity to trustees and providers on the boundaries between guidance and advice have been issued since April this year (https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions(opens in a new tab)). Prior to Covid-19 the FCA and tPR conducted regular campaigns, through the ScamSmart branding, to raise awareness of pension scams and what to watch out for, these have been deemed very successful, over 222,000 visited the ScamSmart website to find out how to identify a scam scheme as a result of the most recent pre Covid campaign, July – November 2019.

DWP continues to communicate regularly on social media to set out the warning signs of a scam and has made multiple posts referencing Pension Scams and #ScamSmart in total across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in the period March to September 2020.


Written Question
Pensions: Direct Marketing
Tuesday 15th December 2020

Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to ensure that the ban on pensions cold calling includes recipients of calls who have an existing relationship with the scam caller.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

This government is committed to safeguarding consumer savings. DWP, and other departments, have introduced measures that assist all savers to understand their choices and the possible risks of the choices they make, along with legislation to protect those most vulnerable to scams. This includes the ban on cold calling, which was introduced January 2019. Further action is being taken legislatively and operationally.

To help protect people from pension scams, clause 125 in the Pension Schemes Bill is being introduced, following extensive consultation and debate. It will allow government to introduce measures to limit the statutory right to transfer.

The Bill will ensure that a range of consumer protections will apply to all pension savers, regardless of what avenue, such as online or via social media, is used by potential scammers to contact them with regards to their pension savings. The powers in this Bill will enable government in certain circumstances (red flags) to remove the statutory right to transfer. The Government is working cross department and with industry & regulators to determine red flags including the use of online channels to make contact with pension savers.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), plays a key role in protecting the UK from cybercrime and fraud. The NCSC’s Active Cyber Defence (ACD) programme tackles cyber-attacks in an automated and scalable way, to improve national resilience. This includes a takedown service which searches for and identifies malicious websites. Where found, it removes them at source so they cannot cause further harm to the public.

To complement the ACD programme, the NCSC recently launched the Suspicious Email Reporting Service, which allows the public to flag suspicious emails to the NCSC simply by forwarding them to report@phishing.gov.uk. They are then analysed and malicious content is taken down where found.

The Government continues to raise public awareness of scams through ongoing communications directly from DWP and with other organisations. Joint and independent communications from the FCA and tPR spelling out the dangers, what to watch out for and giving clarity to trustees and providers on the boundaries between guidance and advice have been issued since April this year (https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions(opens in a new tab)). Prior to Covid-19 the FCA and tPR conducted regular campaigns, through the ScamSmart branding, to raise awareness of pension scams and what to watch out for, these have been deemed very successful, over 222,000 visited the ScamSmart website to find out how to identify a scam scheme as a result of the most recent pre Covid campaign, July – November 2019.

DWP continues to communicate regularly on social media to set out the warning signs of a scam and has made multiple posts referencing Pension Scams and #ScamSmart in total across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in the period March to September 2020.


Written Question
Pensions: Fraud
Tuesday 15th December 2020

Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with technology companies and platforms on free pension reviews being offered by people seeking to commit fraud via social media to circumvent the pensions cold calling ban.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

This government is committed to safeguarding consumer savings. DWP, and other departments, have introduced measures that assist all savers to understand their choices and the possible risks of the choices they make, along with legislation to protect those most vulnerable to scams. This includes the ban on cold calling, which was introduced January 2019. Further action is being taken legislatively and operationally.

To help protect people from pension scams, clause 125 in the Pension Schemes Bill is being introduced, following extensive consultation and debate. It will allow government to introduce measures to limit the statutory right to transfer.

The Bill will ensure that a range of consumer protections will apply to all pension savers, regardless of what avenue, such as online or via social media, is used by potential scammers to contact them with regards to their pension savings. The powers in this Bill will enable government in certain circumstances (red flags) to remove the statutory right to transfer. The Government is working cross department and with industry & regulators to determine red flags including the use of online channels to make contact with pension savers.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), plays a key role in protecting the UK from cybercrime and fraud. The NCSC’s Active Cyber Defence (ACD) programme tackles cyber-attacks in an automated and scalable way, to improve national resilience. This includes a takedown service which searches for and identifies malicious websites. Where found, it removes them at source so they cannot cause further harm to the public.

To complement the ACD programme, the NCSC recently launched the Suspicious Email Reporting Service, which allows the public to flag suspicious emails to the NCSC simply by forwarding them to report@phishing.gov.uk. They are then analysed and malicious content is taken down where found.

The Government continues to raise public awareness of scams through ongoing communications directly from DWP and with other organisations. Joint and independent communications from the FCA and tPR spelling out the dangers, what to watch out for and giving clarity to trustees and providers on the boundaries between guidance and advice have been issued since April this year (https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions(opens in a new tab)). Prior to Covid-19 the FCA and tPR conducted regular campaigns, through the ScamSmart branding, to raise awareness of pension scams and what to watch out for, these have been deemed very successful, over 222,000 visited the ScamSmart website to find out how to identify a scam scheme as a result of the most recent pre Covid campaign, July – November 2019.

DWP continues to communicate regularly on social media to set out the warning signs of a scam and has made multiple posts referencing Pension Scams and #ScamSmart in total across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in the period March to September 2020.