Asked by: Ross Thomson (Conservative - Aberdeen South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support self-employed people who need to claim employment support allowance.
Answered by Lord Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
We have successfully rolled out Universal Credit in all job centres nationally. Consequently, self-employed people, who have a health condition, can now claim either Universal Credit and/or New Style Employment and Support Allowance.
Claimants who are eligible to claim New Style Employment and Support Allowance can do so by calling the Universal Credit helpline to request a claim form or by downloading and printing the form available on Gov.uk. Full details about how to apply (including information requesting forms in alternative formats such as braille) can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/how-to-claim-new-style-esa
Claimants who are not eligible to claim New Style Employment and Support Allowance can claim Universal Credit online. For those unable to access or use digital services, assistance to make and maintain their claim is available via the Freephone Universal Credit helplines. The Universal Credit Service Centre will establish the best means of support available.
A home visit can be arranged to support a claimant in making their initial claim and completing any other administrative tasks required to ensure their application is completed.
Additionally, to help claimants who may struggle making a claim, Universal Support is available, which is advice, assistance or support to help Universal Credit and New Style Employment and Support Allowance claimants with managing their claim or award.
From 1 April 2019 Citizens Advice (England and Wales) and Citizens Advice Scotland will deliver a new “Help to Claim” service to support vulnerable claimants through the process of making a claim.
Asked by: Ross Thomson (Conservative - Aberdeen South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will hold discussions with representatives of the Scottish Government on the effect of her policies on WASPI women in Scotland.
Answered by Guy Opperman
I have had regular correspondence with the Scottish Minister for Social Security on 16/07/2017, 25/08/17 and 05/02/18. As I said in my letter of 5th February,
“Should the Scottish Government wish to exercise their considerable powers to provide financial support to those impacted by the changes to the State Pension age they are able to do so. This would be entirely a matter for them and the UK Government would not seek to stop them”.
There are no plans to meet with representatives of the Scottish Government to discuss this issue.
Asked by: Ross Thomson (Conservative - Aberdeen South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people had personal independence payment decisions overturned because of (a) mandatory reconsideration and (b) an appeal hearing in Aberdeen South constituency in each year since April 2013.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The table below shows the number of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) decisions and the number and proportion of mandatory reconsideration decisions and appeal decisions where the award was changed, by financial year of the initial PIP decision since the introduction of PIP in the Parliamentary Constituency of Aberdeen South.
Number of PIP decisions, and number and proportion of mandatory reconsiderations decisions and appeal decisions where the award changed, by financial year of initial PIP decision.
Financial year of initial PIP decision | Number of PIP decisions | Number of awards changed at MR | Proportion of PIP decisions changed at MR | Number of awards changed at appeal | Proportion of PIP decisions where award changed at appeal |
2013/14 | 100 | # | # | # | # |
2014/ 15 | 560 | 10 | 1% | # | # |
2015/ 16 | 680 | 20 | 2% | 30 | 5% |
2016/ 17 | 1,030 | 50 | 5% | 40 | 4% |
2017/18 (April 17 to Oct 17) | 580 | 30 | 5% | 10 | 2% |
Total | 2,950 | 110 | 4% | 90 | 3% |
Data has been rounded to the nearest 10 and nearest percent.
‘#’ means fewer than 5 in this category.
There will be some degree of retrospection in these figures over time due to changes in individual case outcomes, particularly with appeals. It is expected that there will be lower numbers of completed appeals in recent months due to the time lag in appeal completion.
Latest available data to October 2017
Asked by: Ross Thomson (Conservative - Aberdeen South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the economic effect on Scotland of the increase in statutory minimum employee pension contributions in 2018 and 2019; and what estimate he has made of the number of people in Scotland who will be affected by those changes.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Automatic enrolment was designed to increase the number of people saving for their retirement, and has been a great success to date. By the end of September 2017, over 8.7 million people had been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension – this included 523,000 people in Scotland
We do want to encourage people to save more than the minimum, but we need to balance this with the fact that many people are not saving anything and contributing to a pension will be new to them. We also recognise that employers needed time to adjust so as to implement the reforms, and to help manage their costs. As such, our focus is on increasing the number of people saving and increasing contributions gradually over the next two years. For an individual, these are currently at 1 per cent, rising to 3 per cent in April 2018 and 5 per cent in April 2019
We are currently undertaking a review of the policy and operation of automatic enrolment. This includes looking at the existing coverage of the policy; strengthening the evidence base concerning future contributions and how to improve individuals’ engagement with workplace pension saving so as to maximise saving for their retirement. The review work is led by a DWP team and supported by an external advisory group. We will report to Parliament by the end of 2017.