Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to review the effect on pensioner poverty of the requirement that pensioners make a claim for universal credit on retirement and not pension credit because their partner has not yet reached pension age.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We spend around £100 billion on the State Pension in 2019/20, and as a result of the triple lock, from April 2020 (subject to Parliamentary approval), the full yearly amount of the basic State Pension will be around £700 higher than if it had just been up-rated by earnings since April 2010. There are 100,000 fewer pensioners in absolute poverty (before housing costs) than in 2009/10. Rates of material deprivation for pensioners are also at a record low: since 2009/10 material deprivation for pensioners has fallen from 10% to 7% in 2017/18. Entitlement to the State Pension, and eligibility to claim it, are unaffected by the changes made to support for people on low incomes through the system of income-related benefits.
This change does not apply to couples already claiming Pension Credit and/or Housing Benefit for pensioners on 14 May 2019 for as long as they remain entitled to either benefit.
In regard to encouraging people below State Pension age to remain in the labour market and continue saving for their own retirement, the Government believes this is important both for individuals and wider society. We do not therefore believe it is right that different labour-market conditions should apply to people below State Pension age based on the age of their partner.
This change in the way support is provided to couples where one partner is below State Pension age will ensure that the same incentives to work and save for retirement apply to the younger partner as apply to other people of the same age. Unlike Pension Credit, which in most cases allows a couple to retain only £10 a week of earned income, Universal Credit provides clear incentives for people to find and progress in work.
The younger partner in a mixed-age couple claiming Universal Credit will get the personalised support provided by Work Coaches to help them find and progress in work where appropriate. If the younger partner is unable to work because of disability or caring requirements, additional amounts may be payable and conditionality requirements adjusted. No work-related requirements will be applied to the older partner. The Government is committed to action that helps to alleviate levels of pensioner poverty.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps she has taken to ensure that older people receive the financial support they are entitled to.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to ensuring that older people receive the support they are entitled to and the DWP targets activity on engaging with people who may be eligible to benefits at pivotal stages, such as when they make a claim for State Pension or report a change in their circumstances.
The DWP uses a wide range of channels including information on https://gov.uk/, in leaflets and by telephone to communicate information to potential customers about benefits, such as Pension Credit. Anyone wishing to claim Pension Credit can do so by calling 0800 99 1234 and DWP staff in Pension Centres and Jobcentres including visiting officers are able to provide help and advice about entitlement to benefits, as are staff in Local Authorities who administer Housing Benefit.
Pension Credit is an important benefit specifically intended to help the poorest pensioners and there are over 1.6m pensioners already claiming over £5billion but we want to ensure that everyone eligible can claim what they are entitled to. One of the best ways to reach eligible customers is through trusted stakeholder working in the community and we have developed the Pension Credit toolkit, as an on-line tool for agencies and welfare rights organisations to use in order to encourage Pension Credit take-up. It can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit
The toolkit contains resources for anyone working with pensioners and includes guides to Pension Credit. It also contains publicity material and guidance designed to help older people understand how they could get Pension Credit and help organisations support someone applying for Pension Credit as well as ideas for encouraging take-up. The toolkit also provides links to information about disability and carers benefits.
Most recently we have provided to relevant organisations a fact sheet about Pension Credit and forthcoming changes for couples to ensure that accurate information is available in the places where people are most likely to seek it.
Finally, the Government’s commitment to the triple lock has meant that the full basic State Pension is now worth around £1600 a year more (in cash terms) than it was in 2010 and significantly, the majority of people of pension age in receipt of a State Pension or another social security benefit receive their annual winter fuel payment automatically without the need to make a claim.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure people over the age of 75 are supported financially to afford the TV licence fee.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The policy for the TV licence concession for those aged 75 and over is currently the responsibility of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and will pass to the BBC in June 2020.
We are forecast to spend over £120 billion on benefits for pensioners in 2019-20, this includes over £99 billion of expenditure on the State Pension.
We are committed to the Triple Lock for the remainder of this Parliament, guaranteeing that up to the full amounts of the basic and new State Pensions will rise by the highest of average earnings growth, price inflation, or 2.5% and in 2019/20 the increase was 2.6%.
The full rate of the basic State Pension will be worth over £1,600 more in 2019/20 than in 2010 in cash terms - £675 more than if it had been increased only in line with earnings.
Pension Credit and Housing Benefit for pensioners provide support for poorer pensioners. From April 2019, the Standard Minimum Guarantee in Pension Credit has also been increased by earnings. This will be the equivalent of over £1,800 per year higher in cash terms for single people and over £2,700 per year higher in cash terms for couples than it was in 2010.
Asked by: Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will issue a response to Early Day Motion 2033 on Pension Credit - Debate and Vote.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government’s reforms to the welfare system are designed to support those who need it and help people into work. We have reduced pensioner poverty to close to historically low levels and the triple lock on the State Pension has helped lift the incomes of millions of pensioners. Since 2010, we have increased the annual level of the basic State Pension by £1,450. In 2018/19 we will spend £121.5 billion on benefits for pensioners and by 2023/24 this rises to £143.5 billion.
In 2012, Parliament voted to modernise the welfare system to ensure that couples, where one person is of working age and the other person is over State Pension age, access support, where it is needed, through the working age benefit regime. This replaces the previous system whereby the household could access either Pension Credit and pension-age Housing Benefit, or working-age benefits.
Pension Credit is designed to provide long-term support for pensioner households who are no longer economically active. It is not designed to support working age claimants. This change will ensure that the same work incentives apply to the younger partner as apply to other people of the same age, and taxpayer support is directed where it is needed most.
The Government set out to Parliament last year that this change would be implemented once Universal Credit was available nationally for new claims. On 14th January 2019, the Government confirmed that this change will be introduced from 15th May 2019. The change was being brought into effect in Great Britain through a Commencement Order[1] under the Welfare Reform Act 2012. There was an equivalent Order to introduce the change for Northern Ireland.
The change will not affect mixed age couples who are entitled to Pension Credit and/or pension age Housing Benefit immediately before the implementation date unless their entitlement to both those benefits subsequently ends.
In February 2017, Government published an employer-led Strategy “Fuller Working Lives: A Partnership Approach”, which sets out the importance of Fuller Working Lives for employers and individuals. It also sets out action Government is taking to support older workers to remain in the labour market.
Honourable Members can seek the opportunity to debate the issues raised by this commencement order through applying for an adjournment or Backbench Business Committee debate.
[1] The Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 31 and Savings and Transitional Provisions and Commencement No. 21 and 23 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions (Amendment)) Order 2019
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to increase the state pension; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
On 27 November 2017, the Minister for Family Support, Housing and Child Maintenance announced in a Written Statement to Parliament that the Government would increase the full basic and new State Pensions by 3 per cent in 2018/19 in line with the rate of prices growth as measured by the Consumer Price Index. The annual uprating order which is currently going through the Parliamentary processes includes proposals to enact this increase. This is in line with Government’s commitment for the duration of this Parliament to increase these state pensions by the Triple Lock: that is the highest of the growth in prices, earnings or 2.5 per cent.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
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 effect of the triple lock pension policy on the number of pensioners living in poverty in (a) Woking constituency, (b) the South East and (c) the UK.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
While we can’t draw a direct link between the triple lock and pensioner poverty, pensioner poverty is at one of the lowest rates since records began, with 100,000 fewer pensioners in relative poverty (after housing costs) than there were in 2009/10. Pensioners are now less likely to be in relative and absolute low income after housing costs than the population as a whole. The Government continues to support the poorest pensioners, not least through Pension Credit which tops up income to a guaranteed minimum level of £155.60 for a single person and £237.55 for couples.
The Government wants all pensioners to have a decent and secure income in retirement. We have committed to maintain the triple lock to 2020, the guarantee that both the basic State Pension and the new State Pension will increase by the highest of the growth in average earnings, price increase or 2.5%. The full basic State Pension is now over £1,100 a year higher than it was at the start of the last Parliament. This is benefitting many of the 17,000 recipients of the State Pension in Woking, the 1.7 million recipients in the South East and the 13 million recipients in the UK.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will introduce a payment of £1,000 to each person reaching the age of 100.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
This government is committed to ensuring that older people are able to live with the dignity and respect they deserve and the State Pension is the foundation of state support for older people. That is why the government has committed to increasing the State Pension by the triple lock, with someone on a full basic State Pension receiving around £570 more in 2016-17 than if it had been uprated by average earnings since the start of the last Parliament.
In total, the government will spend around £95 billion on the State Pension in 2016-17.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
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 effect of the triple lock pension policy of the number of pensioners living in poverty in (a) Windsor, (b) the South East and (c) the UK.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
While we can’t draw a direct link between the triple lock and pensioner poverty, pensioner poverty is at one of the lowest rates since records began. Pensioners are less likely to be in relative and absolute low income after housing costs than the population as a whole. The Government continues to support the poorest pensioners and from April 2016, Pension Credit will top up income to a guaranteed minimum level of £155.60 for a single person and £237.55 for couples.
The Government wants all pensioners to have a decent and secure income in retirement. We are committed to the triple lock, the guarantee that the basic State Pension will increase by the highest of the growth in average earnings, price increase or 2.5%. From April 2016, the basic State Pension will be over £1,100 a year higher than at the start of the last Parliament. This will benefit many of the 18,000 recipients of State Pension in Windsor, the 1.7 million recipients in the South East and the 13 million recipients in the UK.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing a scheme based on the actuarial pension model to increase the speed at which women born in the 1950s qualify for state pension.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The State Pension is funded through the National Insurance scheme which does not bear comparison with a commercially operated one.
Although eligibility for the State Pension is dependent in part on the payment of National Insurance, the National Insurance system is not an individual pension fund. National Insurance credits are available for many people to help them build entitlement towards the State Pension. National Insurance contributions also give entitlement to a range of other benefits such as Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance and Carer’s Allowance.
Future entitlement to benefits is a matter for the Government and Parliament to decide, and the changes to the State Pension age have been made in conjunction with introducing the triple-lock protection of the basic State Pension, the introduction of the new State Pension, and the protection of other pensioner benefits.
Asked by: Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the application of the "triple lock" policy used in regard to state retirement pensions to the Personal Allowance element from local authorities for retired people living in residential homes; and whether it is their intention to apply it.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
All local authority supported care home residents retain an amount of their own income, the Personal Expenses Allowance (PEA), for personal expenses. A significant number of these are below pension credit qualifying age. It would not, therefore, be appropriate to apply the triple lock to the PEA and it would be inequitable to only apply it to the PEA retained by people above pension credit qualifying age.
Local authorities have discretion to allow people to keep a larger PEA where they have a family member to support or a property to maintain.
We are committed to uprating the PEA regularly to ensure that it maintains its value.