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749505

	registered interest
	date	06/07/2017
	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	Pension Rights: Equality
	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 will take to eliminate inequalities in pension rights.
	tabling member constituency	Lanark and Hamilton East
	tabling member printed	Angela Crawley
	uin	3448
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/07/2017 answer text <p>The decision was made in 1995 to equalise the State Pension age for men and women. This addressed a longstanding inequality in pension age. If State Pension ages had not been equalised, women would be spending over 40% of their adult life in retirement. Men’s and women’s State Pension age will equalise in November 2018.</p><p> </p><p>The new State Pension is much more generous for many women, who have been historically worse off under the old system. By 2030, over 3 million women stand to gain an average of £550 extra per year as a result of recent changes.</p><p> </p><p>Automatic enrolment into workplace pensions was designed to help more people save for their retirement, including groups who historically have been less likely to save, such as women and lower earners. In 2012, overall workplace participation by eligible female employees was 58 per cent, compared to male participation at 52 per cent but since the introduction of automatic enrolment, the participation of female eligible employees has increased to 80 per cent in 2016 with overall male participation at 76 per cent.</p><p> </p><p>As part of the current review of automatic enrolment, the Government has committed to look at the existing coverage of the policy and consider the needs of those not currently benefiting from automatic enrolment. The review will have regard to the Equality Act, as well as the need to balance the needs of individual savers, with affordability for employers and value for money for tax payers.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 11/07/2017 15:52:52 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4469 label Biography information for Angela Crawley

1058897

	registered interest
	date	11/02/2019
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the Government plans to take implement the proposals from its Automatic enrolment review 2017, published on 18 December 2017, to remove the lower limit of qualifying earnings for workplace pension auto-enrolment.
	tabling member constituency	Lanark and Hamilton East
	tabling member printed	Angela Crawley
	uin	219503
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/02/2019 answer text <p>Automatic Enrolment has reversed the decline in workplace pension saving. Latest figures show that more than 10 million workers have been automatically enrolled into workplace pension by more than 1.4 million employers. By 2019/20 an estimated extra £18.4 billion a year is estimated to go into workplace pensions as a result of Automatic Enrolment.</p><p> </p><p>Automatic enrolment was designed specifically to help groups who historically were poorly served or excluded from workplace pension saving, such as women and lower earners. In 2012, 60% of eligible women in the private sector did not have a workplace pension. As of 2017, this had fallen to 20% and the participation rate for women in the private sector is now near equal to men.</p><p> </p><p>The earnings trigger determines who is eligible to be enrolled by their employer into a workplace pension. The DWP reviews the trigger annually, and in doing so considers whether the people brought into pensions saving are likely to benefit, paying particular attention to the impact of this on groups currently under-represented in pension saving such as women and low earners.</p><p> </p><p>The decision to maintain the trigger at £10,000 for 2019/20 continues to strike a balance between affordability for employers and individuals, while delivering on our policy objective of continuing to give low to median earners, who are most able to save, the opportunity to do so. This also provides a level of stability, with the second phased increase in contributions due to take place at the start of the 2019/20 tax year. Lowering the trigger could result in diverting income away from the day-to-day needs of the lowest earners and impact significantly on their living standards. For those low earners who are in a position to contribute, however, the option remains to opt-in to saving, and if they earn above the lower earnings limit they will also receive employer contributions.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is committed to building on the success of Automatic Enrolment. The 2017 review sets out our ambition for the mid-2020s, with proposals to strengthen financial resilience for young people and lower earners, including those who have multiple part-time jobs. However, we will not force the pace of change in Automatic Enrolment and want to understand properly the impact of the 2018 and 2019 increases in minimum contribution rates, and work with stakeholders to build the consensus on which the success of Automatic Enrolment has been based, before committing to a timetable for the proposed changes.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 219504 219505 question first answered 19/02/2019 13:10:38 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4469 label Biography information for Angela Crawley

1058898

	registered interest
	date	11/02/2019
	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	Part-time Employment: Females
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support low paid women in part time jobs to save for retirement.
	tabling member constituency	Lanark and Hamilton East
	tabling member printed	Angela Crawley
	uin	219504
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/02/2019 answer text <p>Automatic Enrolment has reversed the decline in workplace pension saving. Latest figures show that more than 10 million workers have been automatically enrolled into workplace pension by more than 1.4 million employers. By 2019/20 an estimated extra £18.4 billion a year is estimated to go into workplace pensions as a result of Automatic Enrolment.</p><p> </p><p>Automatic enrolment was designed specifically to help groups who historically were poorly served or excluded from workplace pension saving, such as women and lower earners. In 2012, 60% of eligible women in the private sector did not have a workplace pension. As of 2017, this had fallen to 20% and the participation rate for women in the private sector is now near equal to men.</p><p> </p><p>The earnings trigger determines who is eligible to be enrolled by their employer into a workplace pension. The DWP reviews the trigger annually, and in doing so considers whether the people brought into pensions saving are likely to benefit, paying particular attention to the impact of this on groups currently under-represented in pension saving such as women and low earners.</p><p> </p><p>The decision to maintain the trigger at £10,000 for 2019/20 continues to strike a balance between affordability for employers and individuals, while delivering on our policy objective of continuing to give low to median earners, who are most able to save, the opportunity to do so. This also provides a level of stability, with the second phased increase in contributions due to take place at the start of the 2019/20 tax year. Lowering the trigger could result in diverting income away from the day-to-day needs of the lowest earners and impact significantly on their living standards. For those low earners who are in a position to contribute, however, the option remains to opt-in to saving, and if they earn above the lower earnings limit they will also receive employer contributions.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is committed to building on the success of Automatic Enrolment. The 2017 review sets out our ambition for the mid-2020s, with proposals to strengthen financial resilience for young people and lower earners, including those who have multiple part-time jobs. However, we will not force the pace of change in Automatic Enrolment and want to understand properly the impact of the 2018 and 2019 increases in minimum contribution rates, and work with stakeholders to build the consensus on which the success of Automatic Enrolment has been based, before committing to a timetable for the proposed changes.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 219503 219505 question first answered 19/02/2019 13:10:39 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4469 label Biography information for Angela Crawley

1058899

	registered interest
	date	11/02/2019
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support people who do not meet the automatic enrolment earnings threshold to save for retirement.
	tabling member constituency	Lanark and Hamilton East
	tabling member printed	Angela Crawley
	uin	219505
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/02/2019 answer text <p>Automatic Enrolment has reversed the decline in workplace pension saving. Latest figures show that more than 10 million workers have been automatically enrolled into workplace pension by more than 1.4 million employers. By 2019/20 an estimated extra £18.4 billion a year is estimated to go into workplace pensions as a result of Automatic Enrolment.</p><p> </p><p>Automatic enrolment was designed specifically to help groups who historically were poorly served or excluded from workplace pension saving, such as women and lower earners. In 2012, 60% of eligible women in the private sector did not have a workplace pension. As of 2017, this had fallen to 20% and the participation rate for women in the private sector is now near equal to men.</p><p> </p><p>The earnings trigger determines who is eligible to be enrolled by their employer into a workplace pension. The DWP reviews the trigger annually, and in doing so considers whether the people brought into pensions saving are likely to benefit, paying particular attention to the impact of this on groups currently under-represented in pension saving such as women and low earners.</p><p> </p><p>The decision to maintain the trigger at £10,000 for 2019/20 continues to strike a balance between affordability for employers and individuals, while delivering on our policy objective of continuing to give low to median earners, who are most able to save, the opportunity to do so. This also provides a level of stability, with the second phased increase in contributions due to take place at the start of the 2019/20 tax year. Lowering the trigger could result in diverting income away from the day-to-day needs of the lowest earners and impact significantly on their living standards. For those low earners who are in a position to contribute, however, the option remains to opt-in to saving, and if they earn above the lower earnings limit they will also receive employer contributions.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is committed to building on the success of Automatic Enrolment. The 2017 review sets out our ambition for the mid-2020s, with proposals to strengthen financial resilience for young people and lower earners, including those who have multiple part-time jobs. However, we will not force the pace of change in Automatic Enrolment and want to understand properly the impact of the 2018 and 2019 increases in minimum contribution rates, and work with stakeholders to build the consensus on which the success of Automatic Enrolment has been based, before committing to a timetable for the proposed changes.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 219503 219504 question first answered 19/02/2019 13:10:39 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4469 label Biography information for Angela Crawley

1061334

	registered interest
	date	14/02/2019
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what incentives the Government provides to encourage individuals in multiple jobs to opt-in to pension saving.
	tabling member constituency	Lanark and Hamilton East
	tabling member printed	Angela Crawley
	uin	221858
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/02/2019 answer text <p>In its 2017 Review of Automatic Enrolment Review the Government looked at the position of multiple job holders, including those who earn more than the earnings trigger in aggregate, but do not qualify for automatic enrolment by their employer as they do not earn more than this level in any single job.</p><p>Currently multiple job holders will benefit from being enrolled by their employer if they earn above the earnings trigger in any one job. This is currently set at £10,000 for 2019/20. For those in multiple jobs who do not earn above the earnings trigger in any single job, the option remains for them to opt-in to workplace saving if they are in a position to do so, and if they earn above the lower earnings limit they will also have the incentive of getting employer contributions. In some cases, these individuals may also receive tax relief on top of their employer contribution. Some may be enrolled by their employer through contractual enrolment into workplace pension saving.</p><p>The Government is committed to building on the success of automatic enrolment. The 2017 Automatic Enrolment Review sets out our ambition for the mid-2020s, with proposals to improve incentives for low earners in multiple jobs to opt into workplace pension saving by removing the lower earnings limit. This means those individuals would get an employer contribution for every pound earned. However, we will want to fully understand properly the impact of the 2018 and 2019 increases in minimum contribution rates, and work with stakeholders to build the consensus on which the success of automatic enrolment has been based, before committing a timetable for the proposed changes. A significant number of self-employed people choose to opt into Automatic Enrolment themselves.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 21/02/2019 12:32:11 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4469 label Biography information for Angela Crawley

1061311

	registered interest
	date	14/02/2019
	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: Self-employed
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what tests of targeted self-employment interventions with regard to the Automatic Enrolment Review 2017 were carried out in 2018; and how those tests have informed options and costs.
	tabling member constituency	Lanark and Hamilton East
	tabling member printed	Angela Crawley
	uin	221846
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/02/2019 answer text <p>In its 2017 Review of Automatic Enrolment, the Government committed to improve retirement saving among the self-employed by testing a number of different approaches aimed at improving savings levels. This recognises that, given the diversity of self-employed people, a single initiative is unlikely to work. Finding effective, durable retirement saving solutions for self-employed individuals is, therefore, a long-term challenge.</p><p>Following extensive stakeholder engagement and preparatory work for trialling activities throughout 2018, the Government’s December 2018 report, ‘Enabling retirement savings for the self-employed: pensions and long-term savings trials’, provided a research and trialling programme, which involves working with partners, to deliver a range of trialling activities from 2019/20.The initial trials focus on testing whether or not certain types of messaging or marketing interventions can increase the propensity of the self-employed to save in a pension. Our objective is that later trials will build on the findings and test the scope to make it easier to prompt and/or facilitate contributions through existing systems which many self-employed people use, such as invoicing services or accounting software.</p><p>The Department is committed to making information from trialling activities publicly available, working with delivery organisations to ensure monitoring and evaluation is robust to inform implementation options and costs.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 21/02/2019 13:46:49 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4469 label Biography information for Angela Crawley

1061301

	registered interest
	date	14/02/2019
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with stakeholders on removing the lower earnings limit as a result of the Automatic Enrolment Review 2017 in the last 12 months.
	tabling member constituency	Lanark and Hamilton East
	tabling member printed	Angela Crawley
	uin	221844
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/02/2019 answer text <p>As part of its 2017 Review the Government committed to build on the consensus on automatic enrolment, which has been a hallmark of the success of the development and operation of the policy.</p><p>Our ambition is to implement the proposals in the Review, including the removal of the lower earnings limit in the mid-2020s – this is subject to discussions with stakeholders on the implementation approach, finding ways to make these changes affordable, and evidence of the impact of the increases in statutory minimum contribution rates from April 2019.</p><p>We recognise that employers, payroll and other delivery partners need time to plan for these changes, so that they can manage costs with certainty. Over the past 12 months Ministers and officials have and continue to engage regularly with employers, pension providers, consumer groups and other delivery partners on a range of matters including these areas and have debated Automatic Enrolment in parliament on several occasions. We will continue to do so to inform future consultation on implementation plans.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 21/02/2019 16:40:07 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4469 label Biography information for Angela Crawley

1062035

	registered interest
	date	15/02/2019
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of lowering the age limit for pensions auto-enrolment to 18.
	tabling member constituency	Lanark and Hamilton East
	tabling member printed	Angela Crawley
	uin	222040
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/02/2019 answer text <p>The Government is committed to continuing to make workplace pension saving the norm for young people. As part of the 2017 Review of Automatic Enrolment, we set out our ambition to reduce the minimum age threshold from age 22 to 18 – enabling more people to begin to save.</p><p> </p><p>Reducing the eligibility criteria for employers to enrol workers to age 18 helps to reinforce the norm that the majority of young people will start to pay into a pension from their first pay cheque. It will also simplify the workforce assessment for employers: all eligible workers would benefit from automatic enrolment from age 18 whoever employs them.</p><p>The Government recognises that employers, payroll and other delivery partners need time to plan for these changes. Employers need time to adjust to costs over the coming years before the Review proposals are implemented. We also want to understand properly the impact of the April 2019 contribution increase before committing to a timetable for the proposed changes.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 25/02/2019 13:46:28 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4469 label Biography information for Angela Crawley

1064103

	registered interest
	date	19/02/2019
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 19 February 2019 to Question 219503 on Occupational Pensions, with which stakeholders her Department plans to consult on the evaluation of Automatic Enrolment.
	tabling member constituency	Lanark and Hamilton East
	tabling member printed	Angela Crawley
	uin	223514
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/02/2019 answer text <p>The Government is committed to maintaining the consensus with employers, pension providers, payroll companies, consumer groups, Government departments, analytical teams and other delivery partners, which has been a hallmark of the success of Automatic Enrolment. We will continue to inform stakeholders about any future consultations, and evaluation or implementation plans.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 27/02/2019 10:26:44 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4469 label Biography information for Angela Crawley

1064102

	registered interest
	date	19/02/2019
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 19 February 2019 to Question 219503 on Occupational Pensions, what criteria her Department uses to assess the effect of the (a) 2018 and (b) 2019 increases in the minimum contribution rates.
	tabling member constituency	Lanark and Hamilton East
	tabling member printed	Angela Crawley
	uin	223513
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/02/2019 answer text <p>As part of its 2017 Automatic Enrolment Review the Government committed to build on the success of Automatic Enrolment by continuing to monitor and evaluate the impact of increased contributions in 2018 and 2019, as the contributions rose to 5% and 8%.</p><p> </p><p>In April 2018, the first of two planned Automatic Enrolment minimum contribution increases took place, with total contributions increasing from 2% to 5%.</p><p> </p><p>Following the first contribution increase, the Government did a detailed evaluation in the 2018 Automatic Enrolment evaluation report (published December 2018), which provides early evidence suggesting that the first increase has gone smoothly with no significant change in savings behaviours.</p><p> </p><p>A link for the report can be found here:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/764964/Automatic_Enrolment_Evaluation_Report_2018.pdf" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/764964/Automatic_Enrolment_Evaluation_Report_2018.pdf</a></p><p> </p><p>The Department is continuing to closely monitor and evaluate the impacts of the phased contribution increases throughout 2019 and will do a detailed evaluation of the 8% rise 2019/2020.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 27/02/2019 14:25:07 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4469 label Biography information for Angela Crawley