Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cases have been reported to the Department for Work and Pensions via the coroners focal point since February 2020.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
From February 2020 to January 2022, 46 cases have been raised via this channel. This figure includes enquires made by the police and other bodies, and erroneous referrals where we signposted the enquirer elsewhere as appropriate.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwark (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the claim by the Trades Union Congress that thousands of key workers are earning less in real terms than they were a decade earlier.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
To examine the real terms earnings of key workers, we focus on public sector workers - which represent the majority of key workers.
Public sector pay in real terms (total pay, deflated by CPI) has grown at an annualised rate of 0.2% over the last decade (since the three months to November 2011). The level of public sector average weekly earnings (in real terms) is now in line with that of the private sector in the three months to November 2021.
The public sector has, on average, better remuneration packages than the private sector. ONS suggested a 7% premium in 2019 (controlling for characteristics, including pensions). In 2020, the median salary in the public sector was £3,500 higher than the private sector, this gap is most acute amongst the lowest paid, where ONS data suggests public sector average hourly wages are 20% higher.
Looking ahead, pay for most frontline workforces – including nurses, police officers, prison officers and teachers is set through an independent Pay Review Body process. Public sector workers will see pay rises across the whole Spending Review period (2022/23-2024/25) as the strong recovery in the economy and labour market has allowed us to return to a normal pay setting process.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport 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 impact of the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 on support for disabled people in Newport West constituency.
Answered by Chloe Smith
As set out in the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, Newport West will benefit from UK Government support that applies in all parts of Wales, from targeted UK Government investment in the local area, and from funding that the UK Government provides to the Welsh Government.
The UK Government set out a range of policies that will apply in all parts of Wales. This includes increasing the National Living Wage, cutting the Universal Credit taper rate, increasing the Universal Credit work allowances, investing in R&D, funding the commitment to recruit additional police officers, and freezing fuel duty. These will help a wide range of people including disabled people.
In addition, the Government published the National Disability Strategy in July 2021 which aims to break down barriers and extend opportunities for disabled people in all parts of the UK. The strategy respects and showcases the diversity of approaches across the UK on disability, in relevant policy areas which are devolved. Reflecting those devolved areas, each nation has - or is in the process of developing - its own disability strategy.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of the changes proposed in the consultation on Public Service Pensions: Police Pensions (Amendment) Regulations 2022 on the (a) value of police officer pensions and (b) length of service required by an officer to access their pension in full.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The government is committed to ensuring that public servants, including police officers, have access to good pensions that are affordable and sustainable in the long term. That was the basis on which the police pension scheme, alongside the main public sector pension schemes, was reformed in 2015 following the recommendations of the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission.
The government is taking steps to remove discrimination on the grounds of age, associated with the transitional protection arrangements linked to the 2015 pension reforms, which was subsequently identified by the courts during the McCloud and Sargeant litigation. Following a public consultation, it has been decided that eligible members will be offered a choice of scheme benefits for the remedy period. From 1 April 2022, all those in service in the relevant workforces will be members of the reformed pension schemes, ensuring equal treatment from that point on. The government believes this is the most appropriate and proportionate way of ending the age discrimination identified.
The Home Office consultation concerns the amendments to the police pension scheme regulations that are required to enact the first phase of this established policy.
The consultation opened on 8 November 2021 and will close on 2 January 2022. We will consider the responses carefully before confirming the regulation amendments.
Since the reformed schemes were introduced in 2015 many police officers are already members of the 2015 police pension scheme and will continue as such.
The 2015 police pension scheme and the other reformed public sector schemes are some of the most valuable available in the UK: backed by the taxpayer, index-linked and offering guaranteed benefits on retirement, comparing very favourably to the typical private sector scheme.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that police officers are not discriminated against within the new Police Pension Scheme.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The government is committed to ensuring good public service pension provision, but this has to be affordable and sustainable in the long term.
The main public sector pension schemes – including the police pension scheme – were reformed following the recommendations of the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission, resulting in the introduction of the 2015 schemes.
The government is taking steps to remove discrimination on the grounds associated with the transitional protection arrangements, identified by the courts during the McCloud and Sargeant litigation. Eligible members will be offered a choice of scheme benefits for the remedy period for those in scope of the remedy and, from 1 April 2022, when the remedy period ends, all those in service in main unfunded schemes will be members of the reformed pension schemes, ensuring equal treatment from that point on. The government believes this is the most appropriate and proportionate way of ending the age discrimination identified.
The 2015 police pension scheme and the other reformed schemes are some of the most valuable available in the UK: backed by the taxpayer; index-linked; and offering guaranteed benefits on retirement; comparing very favourably to the typical private sector scheme.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the value was of all claims identified as fraudulent benefit claims through identity theft; how much has been recovered from those fraudulent claims; and how many people have been prosecuted for fraudulent benefit claims through identity theft in (a) 2018-2019, (b) 2019-2020 and (c) 2020-2021.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Where there is a suspicion of fraud, the Department takes the issue extremely seriously. DWP’s Integrated Risk and Intelligence Service coordinates the detection of, and response to, fraud risks from organised crime groups detecting and shutting down systematic attacks. Last year, this led us to suspend 152,000 Universal Credit claims and prevented £1.9 billion in benefits from being paid to people trying to defraud the system.
The table below shows the number of Fraud Investigations concluded in each of the requested years where the allegation was recorded as Identity Fraud and the primary benefit in payment was Universal Credit. Also shown is the value associated to these Investigations.
| 2018/2019 | 2019/2020 | 2020/2021 |
Cases closed - all outcomes (figures rounded to nearest 100) | 900 | 2,400 | 2,600* |
Values calculated in respect of above cases (rounded to nearest 100) | £65,300 | £928,500 | £2,092,500** |
*As this was identified as a result of serious and organised fraud this figure reflects the number of referrals made and not the number of individual claims that may be incorporated in that referral.
**These cases and values do not include the large number of additional Identity Fraud attempts during 2020/21 (many of which were the result of co-ordinated attacks) which we spotted and stopped before they went into payment, as the cases are still ongoing.
DWP’s Debt Management system does not match recovery to specific fraud type, so it is not possible to state how much money has been recovered in relation to closed cases classified as Identity Fraud.
Covid-19 restrictions have impacted prosecution cases as it has not been possible to carry out face to face interviews. This is because a face to face interview under caution, carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, is a legal requirement before a case can be referred for either prosecution or for an administrative penalty to be issued.
However, DWP is making considerable progress in securing Covid safe rooms across the country for its fraud investigators and is also securing digital facilities, which will enable interviews to be conducted remotely.
DWP will always look to prosecute this type of offence to the full extent where possible and conducted 4 prosecutions for this offence in 2018/19, 9 in 2019/20 and 3 in 2020/21.
There will always be a time lag between the formal investigation and the court’s final verdict, but a number of investigations into hijacked identity are currently being pursued and will come to court in due course.
DWP is currently considering how future legislative change could help target fraud and error even more acutely moving forwards.
All cases where ‘Departmental error’ leads to overpayments of Universal Credit are logged on DWP’s Debt Management system as Official Error cases. These debts are recoverable. The table below shows the total number of these cases recorded on the system in each of the last 3 years.
Financial Year | Volume* |
2018/2019 | 106,000 |
2019/2020 | 199,000 |
2020/2021 | 337,000 |
*figures rounded to nearest 1000
Ensuring benefit correctness is a DWP priority. Despite an additional 3 million claimants to Universal Credit as a result of Covid-19, published National Statistics on Fraud and Error in the Benefit System show that Universal Credit Official Error fell in 2020/21 from 1.3% to 0.9% of benefit expenditure.
Note that the data supplied in this response 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 data should therefore be treated with caution.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claims have been identified as involving (a) identity fraud, (b) departmental error in (i) 2018-19, (ii) 2019-20 and (iii) 2020-21.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Where there is a suspicion of fraud, the Department takes the issue extremely seriously. DWP’s Integrated Risk and Intelligence Service coordinates the detection of, and response to, fraud risks from organised crime groups detecting and shutting down systematic attacks. Last year, this led us to suspend 152,000 Universal Credit claims and prevented £1.9 billion in benefits from being paid to people trying to defraud the system.
The table below shows the number of Fraud Investigations concluded in each of the requested years where the allegation was recorded as Identity Fraud and the primary benefit in payment was Universal Credit. Also shown is the value associated to these Investigations.
| 2018/2019 | 2019/2020 | 2020/2021 |
Cases closed - all outcomes (figures rounded to nearest 100) | 900 | 2,400 | 2,600* |
Values calculated in respect of above cases (rounded to nearest 100) | £65,300 | £928,500 | £2,092,500** |
*As this was identified as a result of serious and organised fraud this figure reflects the number of referrals made and not the number of individual claims that may be incorporated in that referral.
**These cases and values do not include the large number of additional Identity Fraud attempts during 2020/21 (many of which were the result of co-ordinated attacks) which we spotted and stopped before they went into payment, as the cases are still ongoing.
DWP’s Debt Management system does not match recovery to specific fraud type, so it is not possible to state how much money has been recovered in relation to closed cases classified as Identity Fraud.
Covid-19 restrictions have impacted prosecution cases as it has not been possible to carry out face to face interviews. This is because a face to face interview under caution, carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, is a legal requirement before a case can be referred for either prosecution or for an administrative penalty to be issued.
However, DWP is making considerable progress in securing Covid safe rooms across the country for its fraud investigators and is also securing digital facilities, which will enable interviews to be conducted remotely.
DWP will always look to prosecute this type of offence to the full extent where possible and conducted 4 prosecutions for this offence in 2018/19, 9 in 2019/20 and 3 in 2020/21.
There will always be a time lag between the formal investigation and the court’s final verdict, but a number of investigations into hijacked identity are currently being pursued and will come to court in due course.
DWP is currently considering how future legislative change could help target fraud and error even more acutely moving forwards.
All cases where ‘Departmental error’ leads to overpayments of Universal Credit are logged on DWP’s Debt Management system as Official Error cases. These debts are recoverable. The table below shows the total number of these cases recorded on the system in each of the last 3 years.
Financial Year | Volume* |
2018/2019 | 106,000 |
2019/2020 | 199,000 |
2020/2021 | 337,000 |
*figures rounded to nearest 1000
Ensuring benefit correctness is a DWP priority. Despite an additional 3 million claimants to Universal Credit as a result of Covid-19, published National Statistics on Fraud and Error in the Benefit System show that Universal Credit Official Error fell in 2020/21 from 1.3% to 0.9% of benefit expenditure.
Note that the data supplied in this response 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 data should therefore be treated with caution.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to require Police forces to offer training on financial resilience, including (a) planning for retirement and (b) building savings; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners, like all employers, have a duty to manage and support their workforces. It is the responsibility of individual forces to provide training and support, including on financial resilience, where appropriate.
Police forces provide a package of reward and support for police officers and staff, including their salary and relevant additional allowances. They also provide access to occupational pension schemes, including generous employer contributions, that compare favourably to those available to others.
Chief Constables are responsible for the administration of pensions for their respective workforce, including providing information on pensions and retirement.
The government has provided further support for savings in retirement, including for the police workforce, by introducing automatic enrolment in occupational pension schemes.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to use the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to amend the law to raise the mandatory retirement age for judicial office holders; and whether, further to consultation on the matter, they will propose an amendment to that Bill to fulfil the commitment made by the Lord Chancellor on 9 March to “legislate to increase the mandatory retirement age as soon as parliamentary time allows”.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
As set out in the background briefing notes to the Queen’s Speech on 11 May, the government intends to legislate to raise the mandatory retirement age of judicial office holders to 75 through the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill, to be introduced shortly.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 27 May 2021 to Question 3996 on Social Security Benefits, whether her Department has undertaken a cost/benefit analysis of the benefit cap (a) in general and (b) which has included (i) police costs in responding to domestic abuse reports, (ii) local authority costs for temporary housing, (iii) the administration costs of Discretionary Housing Payments and (iv) additional costs to other public services; and whether there are any other policies and programmes which are delivered by her Department where the associated annual costs to the public purse are unknown.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
(a) DWP has published four impact assessments of the benefit cap, each one including a cost/benefit analysis. The first two relate to the introduction of the benefit cap. The second two relate to the introduction of a lower, tiered cap. They can all be found here:
https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/impact-assessments/IA12-003.pdf
https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/impact-assessments/IA15-006.pdf
(b) These cost benefit analyses do not include the specific costs listed in (i) to (iv). The funding of all DWP policies is set out at the time they are introduced and, where relevant, updated at subsequent fiscal events. Documentation on all past fiscal events is set out at Gov.uk, and by the Office for Budget Responsibility where relevant. The most recent documentation can be found at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/965777/Budget_2021_policy_costings_.pdf and https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-march-2021/ respectively.