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1307530

	registered interest
	date	12/04/2021
	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	long Covid: Disability
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of recognising long covid as a disability.
	tabling member constituency	Hendon
	tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
	uin	179050
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/04/2021 answer text <p>Given Long COVID is an emerging condition, the Government cannot comment whether consideration should be given to its addition to the list of conditions classed as a disability under the Equality Act 2020. An individual is defined as disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a “substantial” and “long-term” negative effect on their ability to carry out normal daily activities. The Act defines “long-term” as where an impairment has lasted, or is likely to last for at least 12 months, or where the impairment is likely to last for the rest of a person’s life. “Substantial” on the other hand is defined as an impairment that is more than minor or trivial.</p><p> </p><p>COVID-19 is a new disease and therefore it is not yet clear what the physical, psychological and rehabilitation needs will be for those experiencing long-term effects of the virus. The Government is funding ambitious and comprehensive research into the long-term physical and mental health effects of COVID-19 to better understand how to help and support those affected, with the most recent research call published on 25 March 2021 by the National Institute of Health Research/UK Research Institute.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 16/04/2021 13:45:58 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1186422

	registered interest
	date	19/03/2020
	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	Zero Hours Contracts: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support her Department is providing to people on zero-hours contracts whose employment has been terminated as a result of covid-19 and do not qualify for Statutory Sick Pay because they are not self-isolating.
	tabling member constituency	Harlow
	tabling member printed	Robert Halfon
	uin	32138
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/03/2020 answer text <p><del class="ministerial">As both the Prime Minister and Chancellor have made clear, the Government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID 19 and we have been clear in our intention that no one should be penalised for doing the right thing. These are rapidly developing circumstances and we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.</del></p><p><ins class="ministerial">The Government has been clear in its commitment to support those affected in these difficult times and we have made a number of changes to the welfare system in the past fortnight to ensure people are supported in doing this. These changes include:</ins><br /></p><ul><li><ins class="ministerial">making it easier to access benefits. Those applying for Contributory ESA will be able to claim from day 1 – as opposed to day 8 - and we have removed the need for face-to-face assessment. Both Universal Credit and Contributory ESA can now be claimed by phone or online;</ins></li><li><ins class="ministerial">increasing the standard allowance of Universal Credit and working tax credit for this year by around £1000 per year;</ins></li><li><ins class="ministerial">temporarily relaxing the application of the Minimum Income Floor (MIF) for all self-employed claimants affected by the economic impact of COVID-19 to ensure that the self-employed can access UC at a more generous rate; and</ins></li><li><ins class="ministerial">increasing in the Local Housing Allowance rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit claimants so that it covers the cheapest third of local rents – which is on average £600 in people’s pockets.</ins></li></ul><p><ins class="ministerial">Together, these measures represent an injection of over £6.5 billion into the welfare system.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">The Chancellor has also confirmed that, depending on their status, workers on zero hours contracts may be eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and we would urge people to explore this avenue too.</ins></p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 24/03/2020 11:57:37 question first ministerially corrected 15/04/2020 15:01:33 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson previous answer version 14226 answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	3985 label Biography information for Robert Halfon

523665

	registered interest
	date	07/06/2016
	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	Young Offenders: Housing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016 on access to housing for post-release young offenders.
	tabling member constituency	Ealing, Southall
	tabling member printed	Mr Virendra Sharma
	uin	39688
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/06/2016 answer text <p>The Government set out its assessment of the impacts of the welfare policies in the Welfare Reform and Work Act on 20<sup>th</sup> July 2015. It set out its assessment of the impacts of the social rents policies in the Act on 28<sup>th</sup> September 2015.</p><p> </p><p>A link to the impact assessments is included:</p><p> </p><p><a href="http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/welfarereformandwork/documents.html" target="_blank">http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/welfarereformandwork/documents.html</a></p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson grouped question UIN 39685 39686 39687 39689 question first answered 14/06/2016 10:44:29 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	1604 label Biography information for Mr Virendra Sharma

425493

	registered interest
	date	02/11/2015
	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	Workplace Pensions: Small Businesses
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that small and medium-sized businesses are aware of their obligations relating to workplace pensions.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	14445
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/11/2015 answer text <p>We are committed to supporting small and micro-businesses to adapt to their new automatic enrolment duties. Together with The Pensions Regulator, we have launched a new broadcast-led communications campaign to raise awareness of automatic enrolment amongst small employers.</p><p>The Pensions Regulator has also recently launched a new interactive and simplified online step by step guide to automatic enrolment, designed to meet the specific needs of employers who may not have pensions experience, including those with just one or two staff. Employers using the website can access tailored information relevant to their circumstances. The Pensions Regulator also provides online content for business advisers who play an important role in supporting smaller employers to meet their legal duties. To raise awareness and understanding, the Regulator has had over 500 meetings with intermediary firms and spoken at over 300 events around the UK during the last year</p><p>The Regulator sends a series of letters to every employer starting at least 12 months before their staging date, which is the date that the law applies to them. These letters set out what an employer needs to do and by when to comply with the law and signposts to the relevant information on the Regulator’s website.</p><p>To help employers adjust to the costs of automatic enrolment the minimum employer contribution level starts at 1% and increases gradually to 3% by October 2018. In addition, to ensure that all firms have access to quality, low-cost pension provision, The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) was established by the Government and has a public service obligation to accept any employer that chooses NEST for automatic enrolment.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson grouped question UIN 14316 question first answered 05/11/2015 15:05:46 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

425498

	registered interest
	date	02/11/2015
	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	Workplace Pensions: Small Businesses
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support his Department has given to micro-businesses in adapting to new automatic enrolment pension schemes.
	tabling member constituency	Sefton Central
	tabling member printed	Bill Esterson
	uin	14316
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/11/2015 answer text <p>We are committed to supporting small and micro-businesses to adapt to their new automatic enrolment duties. Together with The Pensions Regulator, we have launched a new broadcast-led communications campaign to raise awareness of automatic enrolment amongst small employers.</p><p>The Pensions Regulator has also recently launched a new interactive and simplified online step by step guide to automatic enrolment, designed to meet the specific needs of employers who may not have pensions experience, including those with just one or two staff. Employers using the website can access tailored information relevant to their circumstances. The Pensions Regulator also provides online content for business advisers who play an important role in supporting smaller employers to meet their legal duties. To raise awareness and understanding, the Regulator has had over 500 meetings with intermediary firms and spoken at over 300 events around the UK during the last year</p><p>The Regulator sends a series of letters to every employer starting at least 12 months before their staging date, which is the date that the law applies to them. These letters set out what an employer needs to do and by when to comply with the law and signposts to the relevant information on the Regulator’s website.</p><p>To help employers adjust to the costs of automatic enrolment the minimum employer contribution level starts at 1% and increases gradually to 3% by October 2018. In addition, to ensure that all firms have access to quality, low-cost pension provision, The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) was established by the Government and has a public service obligation to accept any employer that chooses NEST for automatic enrolment.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson grouped question UIN 14445 question first answered 05/11/2015 15:05:46 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4061 label Biography information for Bill Esterson

425499

	registered interest
	date	02/11/2015
	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	Workplace Pensions: Small Businesses
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of his proposals for automatic enrolment of employees in pension schemes on businesses with fewer than 10 employees.
	tabling member constituency	Sefton Central
	tabling member printed	Bill Esterson
	uin	14313
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/11/2015 answer text <p>In 2010 the independent Making Automatic Enrolment Work (MAEW) review considered the impact of automatic enrolment on small and micro businesses. DWP’s impact assessments and on-going evaluation of Automatic Enrolment continue to monitor the costs and benefits of automatic enrolment on small businesses, including those with fewer than 10 employees.</p><br /><p>DWP’s evaluation reports and impact assessments are all available online.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 05/11/2015 14:06:41 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4061 label Biography information for Bill Esterson

432864

	registered interest
	date	26/11/2015
	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	Workplace Pensions: Small Businesses
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress he has made on pensions auto-enrolment to small and micro businesses; and if he plans to complete that auto-enrolment for those businesses by 2018.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	17853
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/12/2015 answer text <p>Automatic enrolment has been a great success to date, with 5.57 million people automatically enrolled into a workplace pension by 67,892 employers.</p><p>From June 2015 onwards, small and micro employers with 49 or less workers began enrolling all eligible workers into a qualifying workplace pension scheme.</p><br /><p>We remain on track to complete the roll out of automatic enrolment to all employers from 2012 to 2018.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 01/12/2015 15:30:05 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

449074

	registered interest
	date	26/01/2016
	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	Workplace Pensions: Small Businesses
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that small and micro-employers are able to comply with automatic enrolment for workplace pensions.
	tabling member constituency	Hazel Grove
	tabling member printed	William Wragg
	uin	903363
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/02/2016 answer text <p>5.81 million people have already been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension by 78,789 employers</p><p> </p><p>We are focused on making compliance with automatic enrolment duties as straightforward as possible –especially for small and micro employers, to continue to build on this success.</p><p> </p><p>As part of this, the Pensions Regulator has launched a new, simplified and much shorter ‘Step by Step’ guide on their website. This interactive Step by Step guide will help employers easily find out what they will need to do to comply by way of an easier to navigate, personalised journey. The number of steps an employer now has to take has reduced from 11 to just 5. This is designed to meet the specific needs of smaller employers who may well not have pensions experience, including those with just one or two staff. In addition, The Regulator provides online content for business advisers who play an important role in supporting smaller employers to meet their legal duties.</p><p> </p><p>The Regulator has simplified and tailored all letters and guides to ensure that their guidance is easy for small employers to follow; and is working with the key providers in the automatic enrolment market to ensure that employers are offered a consistent automatic enrolment journey.</p><p> </p><p>The Regulator’s website also provides guidance on what to consider when choosing a scheme and includes the list of independently audited, high quality ‘master trusts’ pension schemes. This will make scheme choice (one of the biggest challenges for small employers) easier.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 01/02/2016 17:50:30 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4429 label Biography information for Mr William Wragg

416364

	registered interest
	date	04/09/2015
	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	Workplace Pensions: Private Sector
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of auto-enrolment on private sector pension saving.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	8900
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/09/2015 answer text <p /> <p>Over 5.43 million workers have now been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension by their employer, many for the first time. This has reversed the downwards trend seen in workplace pension participation rates since 2003.</p><p> </p><p>So far opt out has been around 10 per cent, which is significantly lower than the original DWP estimate of around 30 per cent. This has seen the programme opt out assumption being adjusted to 15 per cent overall for the lifetime of the programme.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Automatic Enrolment will give around 10 million people the opportunity to save into a workplace pension - we expect to see 8 to 9 million people newly saving or saving more, generating £11 billion a year more in workplace pension saving by 2020.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 14/09/2015 11:35:08 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

461347

	registered interest
	date	11/03/2016
	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	Workplace Pensions: Pay
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his policy is on employers offering higher salaries to employees who opt of occupational pension schemes.
	tabling member constituency	Ashton-under-Lyne
	tabling member printed	Angela Rayner
	uin	30792
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/03/2016 answer text <p>Section 54 of the Pensions Act 2008 prohibits employers from taking any action for the sole or main purpose of inducing a worker to leave a workplace pension scheme.</p><p>The Government takes potential inducement by employers very seriously. The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is responsible for all matters relating to employers’ compliance with their enrolment duties, including investigations into individual cases of potential inducement by employers.</p><p>Through automatic enrolment we are delivering a fundamental shift in workplace pension saving that is changing the way that people are enabled to save for retirement. Already 100,668 employers have completed their declaration of compliance with the Regulator, resulting in more than 6 million eligible jobholders being automatically enrolled into a qualifying pension scheme.</p><p>The law relating to inducements is an important safeguard for workers and the Regulator has statutory powers of investigation and enforcement it can use in appropriate circumstances. We are working with the Regulator to monitor the number and nature of possible inducement cases as the roll-out of automatic enrolment continues. That will enable us to judge whether the current legislation covering inducement, and the guidance and messaging provided by the Regulator, are operating effectively to protect employees, and whether change may be appropriate.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson grouped question UIN 30793 question first answered 21/03/2016 15:06:53 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4356 label Biography information for Angela Rayner