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717841

registered interest
date	04/04/2017
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Workplace Pensions: Pension Funds
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to introduce legislation (1) prohibiting companies withdrawing moneys from their pension funds for any reason, or (2) requiring them to keep their funds topped up to the level recommended by actuaries.
tabling member printed	Lord Blencathra
uin	HL6650
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2017 answer text <p><ins class="ministerial">Current legislation already requires schemes to have sufficient and appropriate assets to cover the cost of paying future pensions when they fall due, or to put in place a recovery plan to ensure that the scheme returns to full funding within a reasonable period. It also prohibits the transfer of funds from the scheme to the employer apart from some limited circumstances and where there is a surplus.</ins></p><p>The Government’s Security and Sustainability in Defined Benefit Pension Schemes Green Paper explores a number of aspects of defined benefit pensions, including scheme funding arrangements and invites views. This paper was laid before Parliament on 20 February 2017.</p><p>The closing date for comments is 14 May 2017; responses can be submitted to the following postal address:</p><p>DB Consultation Private Pensions</p><p>First Floor</p><p>Caxton House</p><p>6-12 Tothill Street</p><p>London</p><p>SW1A 9NA</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 20/04/2017 09:35:00 question first ministerially corrected 20/04/2017 13:45:24 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley previous answer version 44619 answering member printed Lord Henley answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
tabling member	497 label Biography information for Lord Blencathra

535892

registered interest
date	13/07/2016
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the cumulative impact of housing benefit cuts, benefit caps and council tax on the health of benefit claimants, both those in work and unemployed, since 2008, taking into account the impact of debt on mental health and the need for women to receive a healthy diet before they conceive and while they are pregnant if they are to give birth to healthy babies.
tabling member printed	Baroness Hollins
uin	HL1171
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/07/2016 answer text <p>Impact assessments published for welfare changes, for example those relating to the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016, are available on <a href="http://www.gov.uk" target="_blank">www.gov.uk</a>.</p><p> </p><p>Published impact assessments not available on <a href="http://www.gov.uk" target="_blank">www.gov.uk</a> may be available at <a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk" target="_blank">www.nationalarchives.gov.uk</a>.</p><p> </p><p>We already have cumulative distributional analysis published by HMT that is the most comprehensive available covering not only the effects of direct cash transfers between households and government but also the effects of frontline public service provision.</p><p> </p><p>Our welfare reforms since 2010 are intended to incentivise work and make work pay. There is a strong evidence base showing that work is generally good for physical and mental health and wellbeing. We recognise that not everyone can work and therefore we provide financial assistance.</p><p> </p><p>The employment rate <del class="ministerial">remains</del><ins class="ministerial"> is</ins> at 74.4 per cent which is the highest since comparable records began. In addition the number and rate of workless households are both at a record low.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 21/07/2016 13:54:07 question first ministerially corrected 25/07/2016 08:29:25 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud previous answer version 7861 answering member printed Lord Freud answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	4190 label Biography information for Baroness Hollins

535908

registered interest
date	13/07/2016
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Pensions
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have made an estimate of the cost of their monetary policy on the solvency of pension schemes, and whether they plan to use the profit made from quantitative easing to strengthen the financial position of the Pension Protection Fund.
tabling member printed	Lord Myners
uin	HL1186
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/07/2016 answer text <p>The UK’s monetary policy framework gives operational responsibility for monetary policy to the independent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the Bank of England. Decisions on setting monetary policy are for the judgement of the Monetary Policy Committee.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is sensitive to the fact that there will be those who gain and those who lose from any particular monetary policy decision. Such distributional effects typically balance out over the course of a policy cycle.</p><p> </p><p>Over the last six years low interest rates have helped households and businesses through challenging economic times. Furthermore, as the Bank of England has explained in its article entitled &quot;The distributional effects of asset purchases&quot; published in its 2012 Q3 Quarterly Bulletin: &quot;Without the Bank's asset purchases, most people in the United Kingdom would have been worse off. Economic growth would have been lower. Unemployment would have been higher. Many more companies would have gone out of business. This would have had a significant detrimental impact on savers and pensioners along with every other group in our society.&quot;</p><p> </p><p>The Pension Protection Fund is financially sustainable and there are no plans to further strengthen it. The PPF 2015/16 annual report said that the Fund has over <del class="ministerial">£22</del> <ins class="ministerial">£23 </ins>billion assets under management and is <del class="ministerial">115</del> <ins class="ministerial">116.3</ins> per cent funded.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 25/07/2016 14:26:51 question first ministerially corrected 04/08/2016 13:42:34 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud previous answer version 8217 answering member printed Lord Freud answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	3869 label Biography information for Lord Myners

437038

registered interest
date	10/12/2015
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Personal Independence Payment
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Altmann on 4 December (HL3783) that the Personal Independence Payment assessment criteria were "designed in close collaboration with disabled people and disability groups", whether they will now take into account the responses to the consultation held separately between 24 June and 5 August 2013 on the moving around criteria.
tabling member printed	Baroness Thomas of Winchester
uin	HL4504
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/12/2015 answer text <p><strong>The full public consultation on the ‘Moving around’ activity of the mobility component closed on 5 August 2013. We received more than 1,100 responses. We carefully considered all the responses received, including the suggestions for alternative approaches. We published our response to the consultation on 21 October 2013.</strong></p><br /><p><strong>We believe the assessment criteria, including the 20 metres distance, are the best way of identifying those whose physical mobility is most limited, so we did not make any changes. However, we have strengthened the measures around the reliability criteria – we recognise these are a key protection for claimants.</strong></p><br /><p><strong>Our response to the consultation is annexed to this answer.</strong></p> answering member printed Baroness Altmann question first answered 21/12/2015 12:19:10 question first ministerially corrected 22/12/2015 14:16:11 answering member 4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann attachment 1 file name Annex HL 4504.pdf title Annex "Moving around activity" previous answer version 36662 answering member printed Baroness Altmann answering member 4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann
tabling member	3785 label Biography information for Baroness Thomas of Winchester

93700

registered interest
date	15/10/2014
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	National Insurance: Foreign Nationals
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many foreign nationals have been given national insurance numbers in the last eight quarters; how many were given numbers in total in those two years; and what were the top 20 nationalities of those given national insurance numbers in the last two years.
tabling member printed	Lord Laird
uin	HL2129
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/10/2014 answer text <p>The information requested for the number of foreign nationals registered for national insurance numbers is published and available at:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/" target="_blank">https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk</a></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Stat-Xplore_User_Guide.htm" target="_blank">https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Stat-Xplore_User_Guide.htm</a></p><p> </p><p><ins class="ministerial">The number National Insurance numbers registered to foreign nationals in the last 8 quarters and the total number registered in the two year period from July 2012 to June 2014 is shown in Table 1.</ins></p><p> </p><p><ins class="ministerial">The top 20 nationalities for those registered with a National Insurance number in the same two year period is in Table 2.</ins></p><p> </p><p><ins class="ministerial"><strong>Table 1:</strong> Number of NINo registrations to adult overseas nationals entering the UK, by quarter for the last two years.</ins></p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Jul-12 to Sep-12</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">123,590</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Oct-12 to Dec-12</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">139,390</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Jan-13 to Mar-13</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">178,372</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Apr-13 to Jun-13</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">131,525</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Jul-13 to Sep-13</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">148,389</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Oct-13 to Dec-13</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">158,953</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Jan-14 to Mar-14</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">164,432</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Apr-14 to Jun-14</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">93,945</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial"><strong>Total</strong></ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial"><strong>1,138,593</strong></ins></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p><ins class="ministerial"><strong>Table 2:</strong> Total number of NINo registrations to adult overseas nationals entering the UK for the top 20 nationalities in the last 2 years.</ins></p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Poland (Joined EU in 2004)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">188,046</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Spain</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">88,388</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Romania (Joined EU in 2007)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">81,122</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Italy</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">74,374</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">India</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">56,694</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Portugal</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">50,257</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Rep of Lithuania (Joined EU in 2004)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">45,950</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Hungary (Joined EU in 2004)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">45,450</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">France</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">41,920</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Bulgaria (Joined EU in 2007)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">31,580</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Rep of Ireland</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">30,604</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Pakistan</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">25,979</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Rep of Latvia (Joined EU in 2004)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">22,845</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Slovak Rep (Joined EU in 2004)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">22,361</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">China Peoples Rep</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">21,910</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Australia</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">20,788</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Germany</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">20,423</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Nigeria</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">19,965</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Greece</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">17,260</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">USA</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">16,767</ins></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p><ins class="ministerial">Source: Stat-Xplore, Department for Work and Pensions</ins></p><p> </p><p><ins class="ministerial">Notes:</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">1. Statistical disclosure control has been applied to this table to avoid the release of confidential data.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">2. A change to the process of recording NINos during the quarter April-June 2014, means that the volume of NINo registrations recorded are lower in this quarter than would otherwise be the case (estimated to be around 15% - 25% lower in the quarter April - June 2014 and 2% - 5% lower for the year to June 2014). Therefore, comparisons of NINo registrations over time for the latest periods (quarterly and annually) should be viewed with caution. The process issues impact all nationalities i.e. the impact is not skewed to migrants from specific countries.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">3. Registration date is derived from the date at which a NINo is maintained on the National Insurance Recording and Pay as you Earn System (NPS).</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">4. Data is available up to June 2014, which is the latest information available.</ins></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 22/10/2014 14:51:46 question first ministerially corrected 06/11/2014 16:58:14 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud previous answer version 23638 answering member printed Lord Freud answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	2479 label Biography information for Lord Laird