Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department takes to ensure that information in official leaflets on (a) access to and (b) guidance on benefit entitlements is accurate.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
To ensure information is accurate, all new and amended leaflets are subject to a quality assurance process where content is checked and approved by subject matter experts before publication.
In addition, the department undertakes an annual uprating review of all leaflets that are impacted by rate changes.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of state pensioners that have had their taxable pension income miscalculated due to HMRC applying 52 weeks of the uprated rate rather than accounting for the weeks paid at the previous year’s rate.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to making sure older people can live with the dignity and respect they deserve in retirement. The State Pension is the foundation of the support available to them. Over the course of this Parliament, the yearly amount of the full new State Pension is currently projected to go up by around £1,900 based on the Office for Budget Responsibility's latest forecast.
In line with the Government's commitment to the Triple Lock for the duration of this parliament, over 12 million pensioners have benefitted from a 4.1 per cent increase to their basic or new State Pension this year. Those on a full new State Pension will be getting an additional £470 a year. The extra income comes on top of a substantial increase in 2024/25, which saw those receiving a full new State Pension get a £900 boost.
When it comes to taxes, social security benefits are treated differently depending on why they are paid. Generally, benefits that replace income, like the State Pension, are taxable. The Personal Allowance - the amount an individual can earn before paying tax - will continue to exceed the basic and full new State Pension in 2025/26. This means pensioners whose sole income is the full new State Pension or basic State Pension without any increments will not pay any income tax.
Most pensioners who pay tax on their State Pension are in Pay As You Earn. For these customers, HMRC calculates how much State Pension an individual accrues each year by calculating one week at the old rate of State Pension and 51 weeks at the new rate and adjusting their tax code accordingly. This means most pensioners pay the right amount of tax in real time.
HMRC has become aware that for a sub-set of individuals in receipt of the State Pension, a calculation error means that their tax is calculated based on 52 weeks at the new rate. The difference in tax owed is approximately £5. Affected individuals can call HMRC to amend any incorrect figures of State Pension.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to ensure HMRC tax calculations accurately reflect the period in which state pension upratings apply; and whether HMRC has a planned date for resolving this issue.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to making sure older people can live with the dignity and respect they deserve in retirement. The State Pension is the foundation of the support available to them. Over the course of this Parliament, the yearly amount of the full new State Pension is currently projected to go up by around £1,900 based on the Office for Budget Responsibility's latest forecast.
In line with the Government's commitment to the Triple Lock for the duration of this parliament, over 12 million pensioners have benefitted from a 4.1 per cent increase to their basic or new State Pension this year. Those on a full new State Pension will be getting an additional £470 a year. The extra income comes on top of a substantial increase in 2024/25, which saw those receiving a full new State Pension get a £900 boost.
When it comes to taxes, social security benefits are treated differently depending on why they are paid. Generally, benefits that replace income, like the State Pension, are taxable. The Personal Allowance - the amount an individual can earn before paying tax - will continue to exceed the basic and full new State Pension in 2025/26. This means pensioners whose sole income is the full new State Pension or basic State Pension without any increments will not pay any income tax.
Most pensioners who pay tax on their State Pension are in Pay As You Earn. For these customers, HMRC calculates how much State Pension an individual accrues each year by calculating one week at the old rate of State Pension and 51 weeks at the new rate and adjusting their tax code accordingly. This means most pensioners pay the right amount of tax in real time.
HMRC has become aware that for a sub-set of individuals in receipt of the State Pension, a calculation error means that their tax is calculated based on 52 weeks at the new rate. The difference in tax owed is approximately £5. Affected individuals can call HMRC to amend any incorrect figures of State Pension.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to ensure that pension scheme trustees are able to use surplus funds to provide discretionary increases for pre-1997 pensioners whose pensions have not kept pace with inflation.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Discretionary indexation is over and above the statutory requirements. This discretion is usually exercised by the trustees with the agreement of the sponsoring employer.
The precise design of pension benefits is a matter for employers and trustees and is not covered in Department for Work and Pensions legislation. Pension scheme rules regarding pension entitlements are many and varied and must remain a matter for employers and scheme trustees to decide.
The Pension Schemes Bill 2025 makes changes so that more trustees of well-funded schemes have the flexibility to share their scheme surplus with employers, subject to strict funding safeguards for members.
Scheme trustees are required to act in the interest of scheme beneficiaries. Working with sponsoring employers, they will be responsible for decisions around surplus release. Together they will agree how members can benefit from any release of surplus, which could include discretionary benefit increases.
The Pensions Regulator already expects that trustees should be aware of members who would benefit from any decision to award a discretionary increase and whether the scheme has a history of making such awards.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the annual cost of uprating State Pensions for armed forces veterans living overseas by inflation in each of the next three financial years; how many armed forces veterans who receive the State Pension live overseas; what the average weekly amount received is; what the average weekly amount received would have been if it had been uprated by inflation in each of the last five years; and if he will make an estimate of what the cost to the public purse would have been of uprating these pensions by inflation in the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
As of the quarter ending November 2024, latest available data show there were around 1.1 million recipients of the GB State Pension living overseas. Source: DWP Stat-Xplore
The Department does not hold data identifying armed forces veterans in receipt of the State Pension, whether in GB or overseas.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to (a) increase the rate of and (b) expand eligibility for Carer’s Allowance, in the context of trends in the number of unpaid carers.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government keeps all aspects of Carer’s Allowance (CA) under review to see if it is meeting its objectives. It is not means-tested but is subject to a weekly earnings limit. This was increased by a record amount in April 2025, which will benefit at least 60,000 unpaid carers between 2025/26 and 2029/30.
Beyond that, to be entitled to CA, a carer must be over the age of 16 and provide 35 hours of care per week to a severally disabled person in receipt of a qualifying benefit. They must not be in ‘gainful employment’ (earning more than the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Living Wage), or in full time education (defined as being more than 21 hours per week). There are currently no plans to change the existing eligibility rules for CA.
The level of CA is protected by uprating it each April in line with inflation as measured by the CPI for the previous September. The purpose of benefit uprating is to ensure that the value of benefits stays in line with the general level of prices. From April 2025, the rate of CA was increased to £83.30 per week.
Between 2025/26 and 2029/30 real terms expenditure on CA is forecast to rise by over 6% - around £285 million. By 2029/30, the Government is forecast to spend over £4.7 billion in real terms a year on CA in England and Wales.
CA may be supplemented for those on low incomes through Universal Credit and Pension Credit. These are paid at a higher rate for carers through the Universal Credit carer element of £201.68 per monthly assessment period, paid in addition to the Standard Allowance; or the additional amount for carers in Pension Credit of £46.40 a week, paid in addition to the Standard Minimum Guarantee.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to expand eligibility for Carer’s Allowance in West Dorset.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government keeps all aspects of Carer’s Allowance (CA) under review to see if it is meeting its objectives. It is not means-tested but is subject to a weekly earnings limit. This was increased by a record amount in April 2025, which will benefit at least 60,000 unpaid carers between 2025/26 and 2029/30.
Beyond that, to be entitled to CA, a carer must be over the age of 16 and provide 35 hours of care per week to a severally disabled person in receipt of a qualifying benefit. They must not be in ‘gainful employment’ (earning more than the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Living Wage), or in full time education (defined as being more than 21 hours per week). There are currently no plans to change the existing eligibility rules for CA.
The level of CA is protected by uprating it each April in line with inflation as measured by the CPI for the previous September. The purpose of benefit uprating is to ensure that the value of benefits stays in line with the general level of prices. From April 2025, the rate of CA was increased to £83.30 per week.
Between 2025/26 and 2029/30 real terms expenditure on CA is forecast to rise by over 6% - around £285 million. By 2029/30, the Government is forecast to spend over £4.7 billion in real terms a year on CA in England and Wales.
CA may be supplemented for those on low incomes through Universal Credit and Pension Credit. These are paid at a higher rate for carers through the Universal Credit carer element of £201.68 per monthly assessment period, paid in addition to the Standard Allowance; or the additional amount for carers in Pension Credit of £46.40 a week, paid in addition to the Standard Minimum Guarantee.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Hamble Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with her Australian counterpart on negotiating a new reciprocal social security agreement for the uprating of UK State Pensions for UK pensioners residing in Australia.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department has not engaged with their Australian counterparts on negotiating a new reciprocal social security agreement.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to support children of disabled people who have had PIP removed.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
PIP provides a contribution to the extra costs an individual faces as a result of needs arising from a long-term health condition or disability. It is not an income replacement benefit.
We have committed to introduce a new requirement that claimants must score a minimum of four points in at least one daily living activity to be eligible for the daily living component of PIP. This will target PIP at people who have a higher level of functional need in at least one area. Our intention is that the changes will apply to new claims and award reviews from November 2026, subject to parliamentary approval.
We are mindful of the impact this change to PIP eligibility could have on people. That is why we have committed that existing claimants who lose eligibility as a result of these changes will continue to receive PIP and its associated benefits and entitlements for 13 weeks following their award review. This protection is non-negotiable and will be included on the face of the Bill. This transitional cover is one of the most generous ever and more than three times the length of protection provided for the transition from DLA to PIP.
Delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is a priority for this Government, and we will bring forward the Child Poverty Strategy in the Autumn, exploring all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty.
Further steps are being taken to support households facing the greatest hardship and financial crisis. We provided £1 billion, including Barnett impact, to extend the Household Support Fund in England and Discretionary Housing Payments in England and Wales in 2025-2026. And we have now announced reform to crisis support, including the first multi-year settlement for a new Crisis and Resilience Fund in England.
We are increasing the Living Wage, uprating benefits and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions to help low-income households. We also recognise that the basic rate of Universal Credit is too low. That is why for the first time since 1980 we are increasing the core unemployment benefit by more than inflation on a sustained and permanent basis, subject to parliamentary approval, as part of our welfare reform.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to prevent companies sponsoring pensions from reducing pension indexation rates below promised levels.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Defined Benefit schemes are legally required to increase pensions in payment annually (for pension rights earned from April 1997 onwards) to provide pensioners with a measure of protection against the effects of inflation.
Before April 1997, there was no statutory requirement on defined benefit schemes to increase pensions once in payment, apart from any Guaranteed Minimum Pension element (paid in place of the additional State Pension) earned between April 1988 and April 1997 which must be increased by inflation capped at 3 per cent.
Defined Benefit schemes must meet the legal minimum requirements. However, schemes can and do make more generous arrangements through the scheme rules. If the scheme rules provide for increases above the legal requirements these increases must continue to be paid.
If a member thinks the trustees or sponsoring employer have acted outside the scheme rules, they can take the matter up with the pension scheme through the Internal Dispute Resolution arrangement the scheme is required to have in place.
If the Internal Dispute Resolution arrangement does not provide a satisfactory conclusion, they may wish to consider taking the case to the Pensions Ombudsman.