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167612

	registered interest
	date	03/12/2014
	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	Poverty: Children
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the comments by Lord Freud in the Grand Committee debate on the Child Poverty Act 2010 (Persistent Poverty Targets) Regulations 2014, that the facts Lord McAvoy had quoted were "simply not true" (HL Deb, 25 November, col GC 263), how they were not true.
	tabling member printed	Lord McAvoy
	uin	HL3387
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/12/2014 answer text <p /> <p>I wrote to the Noble Peer on this issue on 4<sup>th</sup> December 2014. I have placed a copy of this letter in the library of the House and have also attached it to this response.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 08/12/2014 15:43:27 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud attachment 1 file name Letter to Lord McAvoy 4.12.14.PDF title Letter to Lord McAvoy 4th Dec 2014
	tabling member	4158 label Biography information for Lord McAvoy

166089

	registered interest
	date	25/11/2014
	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	Workplace Pensions
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to review the basis on which projections of potential returns are used by the investment management industry in communications with pension holders.
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL3147
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/12/2014 answer text <p /> <p>Since 6 April 2003, certain money purchase pension arrangements have been required to provide members with Statutory Money Purchase Illustrations (SMPIs). Legislation requires that statutory illustrations are produced in accordance with guidance prepared by a prescribed body approved by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and by the Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland.</p><p>The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is the prescribed body and has been since 6 April 2007. The FRC fulfils its obligations through the publication of Actuarial Standard Technical Memorandum AS TM1: Statutory Money Purchase Illustrations (AS TM1). It reviews AS TM1 regularly and the last completed review was carried out in 2013 following the introduction of the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/2734) which came into force on 6 April 2014. The AS TM1 specifies that the investment return should take into account the current and anticipated future investment strategy of the member’s funds over the period to retirement and be consistent from year to year, with the rationale documented and made available to members on request.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules require a projection at point of sale for contract based pensions. The investment return must reflect the investment potential of the (expected) underlying assets, subject to an overall cap of 5%pa. Flanking projections must be provided using returns which vary by +/- 3%. The FCA has a public commitment to review the basis every 4 years and the next review is due in 2015. The FCA do not require further projections during the lifetime of the contract as pension scheme members will receive statutory statements prepared under DWP legislation. However, where a provider chooses to provide additional projections, they must follow the same basis as point of sale projections.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 08/12/2014 12:26:30 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

166639

	registered interest
	date	27/11/2014
	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	Poverty: Children
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have carried out any forecasts of the level of child poverty between now and 2020; and if so, whether they will be made public.
	tabling member printed	The Lord Bishop of St Albans
	uin	HL3230
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/12/2014 answer text <p /> <p>The Government does not produce forecasts of the number of children living in income poverty as the number of children in poverty is dependent on factors which cannot be reliably predicted, such as the median income.</p><p> </p><p>The Government does measure annual child poverty statistics through the National Statistics Households Below Average Income (HBAI) series. Estimates of the number and proportion of children in relative and absolute low income in the UK have consistently been reported since 1998/99; these are available for each financial year up to 2012/13, the latest period for which estimates are available.</p><p> </p><p>There has been no assessment of the impact on child poverty of the combined tax and benefit changes announced since May 2010. Available survey data does not allow the Government to robustly assess the combined effects of tax and benefit policy on households with children.</p><p> </p><p>However, this Government has taken unprecedented steps to assess the effects of its policy decisions across the distribution of household income, by publishing analysis of the cumulative effects of the tax and welfare measures announced at each fiscal event since the June Budget 2010. The latest analysis can be found in Chapter 2 of the attached report.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud grouped question UIN HL3231 question first answered 11/12/2014 16:55:04 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	4308 label Biography information for The Lord Bishop of St Albans

166087

	registered interest
	date	25/11/2014
	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	Workplace Pensions: Fees and Charges
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are measuring the impact of auto-enrolment on fees charged by the investment management industry; and what plans they have to track any changes.
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL3145
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/12/2014 answer text <p /> <p>The Government’s Command Paper, ‘Better Workplace Pensions: Further measures for savers’, published in March, set out a range of measures including a cap on charges in default fund arrangements, a ban on inappropriate charges and proposals to introduce minimum governance standards and improve transparency across workplace defined contribution schemes.</p><p> </p><p>Following this, Government launched its consultation on draft regulations on governance and charges in occupational pension schemes in October 2014. Subject to Parliamentary approval, the majority of this legislation will come into force from April 2015, alongside Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules in relation to workplace personal pension schemes where appropriate. From April 2015, the Government intends to introduce a charge cap on the default funds of qualifying schemes, set at 0.75 per cent of funds under management and the first phase of enhanced transparency with trustees and Independent Governance Committees (IGCs) being required to report on costs and charges for the first time.</p><p> </p><p>In 2015 Government will consult on regulations under duties in the Pensions Act 2014 requiring information about transaction costs to be disclosed to members and others, and the publication of costs and charges information. The FCA also intends to consult on amending their own rules to introduce equivalent enhanced transparency provisions for workplace personal pension schemes during 2015. The Government has also set out its plans to review the level of the default fund charge cap, to see if it should be lowered, and also whether it should include some or all of the transaction costs that are ultimately borne by members within a cap. This review will take place in 2017.</p><p> </p><p>Taken together the combined effect of these measures on charges, governance and transparency and the Government’s commitment to a review should ensure that savers are being enrolled into workplace schemes that are well run and in members’ interests.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 08/12/2014 12:19:52 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

166640

	registered interest
	date	27/11/2014
	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	Poverty: Children
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have calculated the impact on child poverty of the combined tax and benefit policy changes announced to date since May 2010.
	tabling member printed	The Lord Bishop of St Albans
	uin	HL3231
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/12/2014 answer text <p>The Government does not produce forecasts of the number of children living in income poverty as the number of children in poverty is dependent on factors which cannot be reliably predicted, such as the median income.</p><p> </p><p>The Government does measure annual child poverty statistics through the National Statistics Households Below Average Income (HBAI) series. Estimates of the number and proportion of children in relative and absolute low income in the UK have consistently been reported since 1998/99; these are available for each financial year up to 2012/13, the latest period for which estimates are available.</p><p> </p><p>There has been no assessment of the impact on child poverty of the combined tax and benefit changes announced since May 2010. Available survey data does not allow the Government to robustly assess the combined effects of tax and benefit policy on households with children.</p><p> </p><p>However, this Government has taken unprecedented steps to assess the effects of its policy decisions across the distribution of household income, by publishing analysis of the cumulative effects of the tax and welfare measures announced at each fiscal event since the June Budget 2010. The latest analysis can be found in Chapter 2 of the attached report.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud grouped question UIN HL3230 question first answered 11/12/2014 16:55:04 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	4308 label Biography information for The Lord Bishop of St Albans

79791

	registered interest
	date	30/07/2014
	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	Children: Day Care
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Deighton on 28 July (WA 247) what specific estimates they have made of the expected "positive impact" of the childcare element of Universal Credit on work incentives for mothers and corresponding employment rates and tax receipts from mothers paying income tax and national insurance.
	tabling member printed	Lord Sutherland of Houndwood
	uin	HL1680
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/08/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p /> <p /> <p>The announced measures mean from April 2016, families with children who have childcare costs below the defined limits will see an improved financial incentive to work and to work more hours.</p><p>Once Universal Credit is fully rolled out many working families will face an improved incentive to work, including 100,000 families who will get childcare support for the first time under Universal Credit. The precise improvement an individual faces will vary according to circumstance.</p><p>We have not made a specific estimate of how this feeds through into employment rates and tax receipts.</p><p><br></p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 11/08/2014 12:29:40 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	2173 label Biography information for Lord Sutherland of Houndwood

44613

	registered interest
	date	24/03/2014
	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
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent steps they have taken to ensure that information on the engagement activities of pension funds and other institutional investors with investee companies is made fully accessible.
	tabling member printed	Lord Harrison
	uin	HL6270
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/03/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p /> <p>The Government supports the principles set out in the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) UK Stewardship Code including schemes becoming active stewards of their investments and reporting on that stewardship. The Code sets out a number of areas of good practice to which the FRC believes institutional investors should aspire, and operates on a 'comply or explain' basis. It includes guidance for pension schemes and other asset owners on steps they can take to protect and enhance the value that accrues to the ultimate beneficiary. The FCA requires UK authorised asset managers to report on whether or not they apply the Code.</p><p> </p><p>The UK stewardship code is voluntary, however we would encourage workplace pensions schemes to comply with the principles set out in the code. In addition we are developing governance standards of workplace defined contribution schemes, and have asked the Law Commission to investigate how fiduciary duties currently apply in the investment chain. The Pensions Regulator's defined contribution Code of Practice also sets out the legal requirements and standards they expect trustees of defined contribution schemes to attain. This includes a section on investment which also references the FRC Stewardship code. These initiatives are part of our on-going work to ensure schemes are governed and administered to deliver in members' interests.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud grouped question UIN HL6271 HL6272 question first answered 31/03/2014 12:00:00 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	2488 label Biography information for Lord Harrison

44614

	registered interest
	date	24/03/2014
	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
	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 case for large occupational defined contribution pension schemes to be active owners or stewards of their assets, in line with the definition of stewardship as outlined in the Financial Reporting Council's Stewardship Code.
	tabling member printed	Lord Harrison
	uin	HL6271
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/03/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p /> <p>The Government supports the principles set out in the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) UK Stewardship Code including schemes becoming active stewards of their investments and reporting on that stewardship. The Code sets out a number of areas of good practice to which the FRC believes institutional investors should aspire, and operates on a 'comply or explain' basis. It includes guidance for pension schemes and other asset owners on steps they can take to protect and enhance the value that accrues to the ultimate beneficiary. The FCA requires UK authorised asset managers to report on whether or not they apply the Code.</p><p> </p><p>The UK stewardship code is voluntary, however we would encourage workplace pensions schemes to comply with the principles set out in the code. In addition we are developing governance standards of workplace defined contribution schemes, and have asked the Law Commission to investigate how fiduciary duties currently apply in the investment chain. The Pensions Regulator's defined contribution Code of Practice also sets out the legal requirements and standards they expect trustees of defined contribution schemes to attain. This includes a section on investment which also references the FRC Stewardship code. These initiatives are part of our on-going work to ensure schemes are governed and administered to deliver in members' interests.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud grouped question UIN HL6270 HL6272 question first answered 31/03/2014 12:00:00 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	2488 label Biography information for Lord Harrison

44615

	registered interest
	date	24/03/2014
	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
	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 case for large occupational defined benefit pension schemes to be active owners or stewards of their assets, in line with the definition of stewardship as highlighted in the Financial Reporting Council's Stewardship Code.
	tabling member printed	Lord Harrison
	uin	HL6272
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/03/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p /> <p>The Government supports the principles set out in the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) UK Stewardship Code including schemes becoming active stewards of their investments and reporting on that stewardship. The Code sets out a number of areas of good practice to which the FRC believes institutional investors should aspire, and operates on a 'comply or explain' basis. It includes guidance for pension schemes and other asset owners on steps they can take to protect and enhance the value that accrues to the ultimate beneficiary. The FCA requires UK authorised asset managers to report on whether or not they apply the Code.</p><p> </p><p>The UK stewardship code is voluntary, however we would encourage workplace pensions schemes to comply with the principles set out in the code. In addition we are developing governance standards of workplace defined contribution schemes, and have asked the Law Commission to investigate how fiduciary duties currently apply in the investment chain. The Pensions Regulator's defined contribution Code of Practice also sets out the legal requirements and standards they expect trustees of defined contribution schemes to attain. This includes a section on investment which also references the FRC Stewardship code. These initiatives are part of our on-going work to ensure schemes are governed and administered to deliver in members' interests.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud grouped question UIN HL6270 HL6271 question first answered 31/03/2014 12:00:00 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	2488 label Biography information for Lord Harrison

79154

	registered interest
	date	21/07/2014
	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	Pensions: Telephone Services
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the average call waiting time in each of the last five years of the pensions helpline.
	tabling member printed	Lord Lipsey
	uin	HL1315
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/07/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p><strong> </strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>2012/13</p></td><td><p>2013/14</p></td><td><p>2014/15</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Changes Bereavement</p></td><td><p>00:00:45</p></td><td><p>00:00:52</p></td><td><p>00:00:50</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Changes (PC / SP)</p></td><td><p>00:00:55</p></td><td><p>00:01:01</p></td><td><p>00:01:00</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>New Claims (PC / SP)</p></td><td><p>00:00:51</p></td><td><p>00:00:54</p></td><td><p>00:01:01</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Wait times are recorded from the point of entering a queue to successful connection to an agent.</p><p>All figures quoted relate to calls handled within DWP only, excluding calls routed to outsourcing partners.</p><p>Figures are presented by business year, spanning 1<sup>st</sup> April – 31<sup>st</sup> March. Figures for 2014/15 are complete to 30<sup>th</sup> June only.</p><p>No data is available prior to April 2012 as this metric was not included within data reported during previous periods and is no longer available in source data systems.</p><p>Data source: OPMIS</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 28/07/2014 13:14:34 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	2492 label Biography information for Lord Lipsey