Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24 of February 2023 to Question 148650 on Pension Credit, what is the current average processing time of Pension Credit applications from date of application to date of (a) decision and (b) first payment.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
This information is only available at disproportionate cost to The Department for Work & Pensions as the Department does not have a business requirement for this information to be retained.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average processing time was for a pension credit application that (a) did and (b) did not require a habitual residence test from application to payment in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
This information is only available at disproportionate cost to The Department for Work & Pensions as the Department does not have a business requirement for this information to be retained.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to extend the special dispensation for people arriving from Ukraine to claim benefits until the end of 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In March 2022, Parliament passed The Social Security (Habitual Residence and Past Presence) (Amendment) Regulations 2022, which exempted those who were residing in Ukraine immediately before 1 January 2022, and who had fled in response to the Russian Invasion on 24 February 2022, from having to satisfy the Habitual Residence Test (HRT) and Past Presence Test (PPT). A link to the regulations can be found here -
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2022/344/contents/made
This meant that those individuals covered by the regulations were eligible for income-related and disability and carer benefits from day one of their arrival, subject to all other entitlement conditions being met.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward the next review of the benefit cap, in the context of the rising cost of living.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
I can confirm that the Secretary of State has completed his statutory review of the benefit cap levels and decided they should be increased in line with CPI in the year to September 2022 (10.1%) in April 2023.
This increase was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his Autumn Statement to Parliament on 17 November 2022.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
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 people on working tax credits receive their cost of living payment within the same timescales as those not receiving working tax credits.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
People on working tax credits are often in receipt of other means-tested benefits.
HMRC issue payments to people on working tax credits after the other payments have been made, to allow time to ensure those who claim tax credits as well as a means tested benefit do not receive the payment twice. This decreases the risk of overpayments to tax credits customers.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will meet with representatives of Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign to discuss the findings of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report on Women's State Pension Age.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s investigation into communication of changes to women’s state pension is ongoing. Section 7(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 states that Ombudsman investigations “shall be conducted in private”. It would be inappropriate to comment on these issues whilst the investigation is ongoing.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
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 (a) impact of not extending statutory maternity allowance to self-employed adopters on parents' ability to take time off work to bond with their newly adopted child and (b) subsequent impact that has on (i) parents and (ii) children.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) and Maternity Allowance (MA) are primarily health and safety provisions relating specifically to pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. They provide a measure of financial security to help women who have worked during or close to their pregnancies to stop working towards the end of their pregnancy and in the months after childbirth, in the interests of their own and their babies' health and wellbeing. As there is no associated period of pregnancy for adopters, it is not appropriate that they are able to make a claim for either SMP or MA regardless of their employment status.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
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 impact of the decision to not provide the cost of living payment to claimants of new-style Employment and Support Allowance on those claimants.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Non-means tested benefits are not eligible benefits for the Cost-of-Living Payment in their own right because people claiming these benefits may have other financial resources available to them.
Many claimants of contributory and new style Employment and Support Allowance are also in receipt of a means tested benefit. For example, as of November 2021 there were around 400,000 claimants getting both income and contributory Employment Support Allowance, and around 100,000 claimants getting Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit.
If someone in receipt of a contributory or new style benefit makes a successful claim to an eligible benefit made after the initial qualifying date, they may qualify for the second, £324 cost-of-living payment in the Autumn.
Contributory and new style Employment and Support Allowance claimants may also benefit from other parts of the Cost-of-Living package of support announced by the Chancellor, including the £400 rebate for domestic energy customers provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what criteria are used for determining whether a shortfall in child maintenance payments is deemed non-compliant with an Order for Child Maintenance.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Non-Compliance is considered as any Child Maintenance payment that is not paid in full and on time as per the payment schedule which is issued to the customer.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken against pension scheme trustees that have paid Pension Protection Fund levies when their pension schemes were subsequently found to be ineligible for payments into the Fund.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Government Departments are required to reflect any guarantees given in their Annual Report and Accounts. These accounts are laid before Parliament annually.
The Pension Protection Fund will only invoice eligible schemes; but it would refund any levies from schemes that are subsequently found to be ineligible, including where a scheme can demonstrate that it had a historic crown guarantee.