Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 28 of Schedule 7 of the Pensions Act 2004, if she will make an estimate of the number of pensioners who have accrued pensionable service before 6 April 1997 for which they do not receive annual increases in periodic compensation from the Pension Protection Fund in (a) Boston and Skegness constituency and (b) the UK.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The rules around PPF indexation are generally in line with the legal requirements for defined benefit pension schemes. I recognise this matter has been the subject of much discussion and am aware of the concerns of pensions scheme members affected by this issue. The estimate, as of 31 March 2024, for members of the Pension Protection Fund with accrued pensionable service prior to 6 April 1997, who do not receive annual increases in periodic compensation are:
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff in her Department are responsible for (a) processing and (b) responding to Freedom of Information Act requests; and if she will make an estimate of the annual cost to the public purse of this work.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not keep this information centrally and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs. This is because, whilst all Freedom of Information (FOI) requests are cleared by a central team, depending on the nature of the request, any member of the Department’s staff could potentially be involved in: processing; locating information for; or drafting, a response to a FOI request.
DWP Departmental spend is published here: DWP: departmental spending over £25,000 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what private sector companies the Child Maintenance Service has contracted to implement enforcement proceedings; what the value of each contract is; whether funds paid by parents are paid to such companies; and what accountability mechanisms are in place.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP holds a number of contracts to support Child Maintenance Service enforcement proceedings.
The suppliers collect funds on behalf of the Child Maintenance Service with the exception of contract for Scottish Legal Services which is in place to enable CMS to recover debt under Scottish Law. All contracts are based on government contracting and industry good practice to support the delivery of services for DWP. This includes meeting standards and regularly reviewed performance alongside compliance against relevant legislation.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many separated families applied to the Child Maintenance Service for advice on creating a family-based arrangement from 2021 to 2024; and how many parents who approached the Service did not proceed with a (a) Direct Pay and (b)Collect and Pay agreement in each of those years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not available. However, the Get Help Arranging Child Maintenance (GHACM) service opened on 18 November 2021 and provides individuals with information about options available for paying or getting support for a child, this includes how to make a private arrangement or how to apply to the Child Maintenance Service, if they choose to do so. There were 34,796 users who accessed GHACM and elected to pursue a private family-based arrangement. This accounted for 11% of GHACM users between 18 November 2021 and 31 December 2024.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the costs to the Child Maintenance Service are of the (a) supervision and (b) processing of (i) Direct Pay and (ii) Collect and Pay arrangements.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The cost of running the Child Maintenance Service is not separated between a) supervision and (b) processing of (i) Direct Pay and (ii) Collect and Pay arrangements, therefore, the information requested is not held.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many former armed forces personnel have been subject to enforcement proceedings by the Child Maintenance Service since 2021.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not available, as the Child Maintenance Service do not maintain a historical record of employers for each paying parent.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many paying parents party to a child maintenance agreement are assessed to have an income of less than £12,570 per year; how many paying parents are in receipt of universal credit; and how many paying parents are estimated to be earning less than the receiving parent.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
At the end of September 2024, there were 289,000 Paying Parents using the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) with a recorded income of less than £12,570 per year. This is 43% of all Paying Parents for whom we held income information.
Information on the number of Paying Parents claiming Universal Credit is published quarterly on StatXplore, as part of the ‘CMS Paying Parents’ dataset. Information on Universal Credit claims is generally not available for the latest published quarter, therefore the most recent information available relates to the end of June 2024 (rather than September 2024, as for most other information in this dataset). At this time, 199,000 Paying Parents claimed Universal Credit. This is 29% of all 675,000 Paying Parents who were using CMS at this time.
The income of the Receiving Parent does not factor into the CMS maintenance calculation, and so this information is not collected by CMS. Therefore, the information requested in the third part of your question is not readily available (and to produce it would incur disproportionate cost). However, you may be interested in the latest Separated Families Statistics, which contain some information, derived from survey data, of the position of ‘non-resident parent’ and ‘parent with care’ households within the Great Britain income distribution. See in particular section 6 of the release document. These statistics include all separated families and are not specific to CMS users.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of migrants who entered in the UK in the last 5 years are in receipt of state benefits.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not hold the information to produce the requested calculation. We are, however, exploring the feasibility of developing suitable statistics related to the immigration status of non-UK / Irish customers. The Department will ensure that this work is done in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of excluding people on Personal Independence Payment from eligibility for the winter fuel payment on their ability to meet energy costs.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Given the substantial pressures faced by the public finances this year and next, the Government has had to make hard choices to bring the public finances back under control.
Winter Fuel Payments will continue to be paid to pensioner households with someone receiving Pension Credit or certain other income-related benefits. They will continue to be worth £200 for eligible households, or £300 for eligible households with someone aged over 80.
The Government also offers an array of support with energy costs for low-income groups in the winter months. This includes direct financial help to low-income pensioners through Pension Credit, Cold Weather Payments and the Warm Home Discount (in England & Wales).
The Warm Home Discount scheme provides eligible low-income households across Great Britain with a £150 rebate on their winter energy bill. This winter, we expect over 3 million households, to benefit under the scheme.
People struggling with the cost of living should contact their local council to see what support may be available to them, as they may be able to receive support from the Household Support Fund, Council Tax Reduction, or through energy support programmes such as the Homes Upgrade Grant and Energy Company Obligation.
The Home Upgrade Grant phase 2 provides energy efficiency upgrades and low-carbon heating measures to low-income households living in the worst performing, off gas grid homes in England to tackle fuel poverty.
For those with long-term health conditions or disabilities, the “extra costs” disability benefits, including Personal Independence Payment, provide a tax free, non-income-related contribution towards the extra costs people with a long-term health condition can face, such as additional heating costs. They are paid in addition to any other benefits received.
These benefits also give rise to a disability addition in Pension Credit and other income-related benefits.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of migrants that have been granted (a) asylum and (b) leave to remain in the last five years are receiving Universal Credit; and what estimate she has made of the projected expenditure for these claimants over the next five years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is exploring the feasibility of developing suitable Official Statistics related to the immigration status of non-UK/ Irish Universal Credit customers. The Department will ensure that this work is done in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics.
The Department has not made a projection of Universal Credit spend on the migrant groups requested. The Department’s published forecast of Universal Credit expenditure at Autumn Budget 2024 can be found here.