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349525

	registered interest
	date	10/06/2015
	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	Fuel Direct Scheme
	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 affordability of a standard Fuel Direct rate of £3.70 for direct payments for arrears on fuel bills; and whether in setting that rate they considered (1) allowing some customers to pay a lower rate of direct deduction, and (2) allowing customers to pay by Fuel Direct for ongoing bills when they are not in arrears.
	tabling member printed	The Lord Bishop of St Albans
	uin	HL394
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/06/2015 answer text <p /> <p>Third Party Deduction is a long standing scheme of last resort where all other means of budgeting have been exhausted. Where the Secretary of State decides that it is in the claimant’s best interests to order repayment of the arrears he can do so. The scheme was introduced in the 1970’s to protect the vulnerable and their family, whilst not adding to their financial burden.</p><p> </p><p>Fuel Direct is set in legislation at 5% of their Personal Allowance, which is a fixed deduction of £3.70 for each element of fuel debt. This is considered to be the most appropriate level of repayment in order to clear the fuel debt arrears and to prevent enforcement action.</p><p> </p><p>Each year the amount of Third Party Deduction is re-assessed as part of The Social Security Up-rating Order.</p><p> </p><p>Once the arrears have been paid a person will usually be taken off the Fuel Direct scheme. In exceptional circumstances a person may be allowed to remain on the Fuel Direct scheme to help ensure that they don’t get into debt again.</p><p> </p><p>However Fuel Direct is not intended as a budgeting aid and the Governments main objective is to help people into employment, whilst encouraging them to be responsible for their own financial affairs, whether they are on benefit or not.</p> answering member printed Baroness Altmann question first answered 18/06/2015 14:39:18 answering member 4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann
	tabling member	4308 label Biography information for The Lord Bishop of St Albans

350105

	registered interest
	date	11/06/2015
	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	Prescribed Industrial Diseases
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many claims they have received for Prescribed Disease C3b in the last 10 years; and of these, how many were allowed.
	tabling member printed	The Countess of Mar
	uin	HL419
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/06/2015 answer text <p /> <p>The information as requested is not available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member printed Baroness Altmann question first answered 18/06/2015 13:40:56 answering member 4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann
	tabling member	1861 label Biography information for The Countess of Mar

381048

	registered interest
	date	15/06/2015
	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	Mesothelioma: Compensation
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of (1) the number of people who have received compensation under the terms of the Mesothelioma Act 2014 since the Act came into effect, and (2) the number of people projected to receive compensation in each of the next three years.
	tabling member printed	Lord Wills
	uin	HL496
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/06/2015 answer text <p /> <p>The information requested is available from the attached Impact Assessment for the Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme which was published in March 2014 and sets out the anticipated levels of claims over the first 10 years of the scheme.</p><p> </p><p>The scheme has now been running since April 2014 with payments being made from July 2014. We will publish statistics on the number of claims made in 2014/15 in due course, and consider a review of the estimates made in the Impact Assessment in light of this data.</p> answering member printed Baroness Altmann question first answered 23/06/2015 16:07:28 answering member 4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann attachment 1 file name mesothelioma-payment-scheme-ia-mar-2014.pdf title Impact Assessment for Mesothelioma Payment Scheme
	tabling member	260 label Biography information for Lord Wills

384513

	registered interest
	date	22/06/2015
	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	Employment: Disability
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people they expect to find jobs as a result of the Disability Confident campaign.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Kennedy of Cradley
	uin	HL724
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/07/2015 answer text <p /> <p>The Disability Confident campaign makes the business case for recruiting and retaining more disabled people and aims to increase the number of employers taking positive action to be more disability confident. We are not able to measure the number of disabled people moving into employment as a direct result of it, but the campaign is an important contributor towards our commitment to halve the gap between the employment rates of disabled and non-disabled people.</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member printed Baroness Altmann question first answered 06/07/2015 12:00:19 answering member 4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann
	tabling member	4303 label Biography information for Baroness Kennedy of Cradley

384514

	registered interest
	date	22/06/2015
	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 what assessment they have made of the recent High Court ruling regarding delays in Personal Independence Payments.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Kennedy of Cradley
	uin	HL725
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/06/2015 answer text <p>The Court rejected two of the three legal grounds brought by the claimants, finding that their human rights had not been breached and not awarding damages.</p><p> </p><p>Where the Court found that the historic delay for the two claimants was unlawful, they also ruled that they are not “test cases” and it would be inappropriate to make wider findings.</p><p> </p><p>The Court accepted that the Government had made significant improvements to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) process and there are now no inherent failings in the system.</p><p> </p><p>As a result of these improvements, the average time taken for a claimant to be assessed by an assessment provider has fallen by more than three quarters since June 2014. In April 2015, the average new claimant was waiting 5 weeks for their PIP assessment – well within the 16 week target set by the Secretary of State.</p> answering member printed Baroness Altmann question first answered 30/06/2015 15:50:02 answering member 4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann
	tabling member	4303 label Biography information for Baroness Kennedy of Cradley

384516

	registered interest
	date	22/06/2015
	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	Families
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Baroness Altmann on 22 June, how they have calculated that £1 spent on advice yields approximately £11.50 in savings.
	tabling member printed	Lord West of Spithead
	uin	HL727
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/07/2015 answer text <p /> <p>This calculation was derived from an independent review commissioned by the Department for Education.</p><p> </p><p>The information is available in the Department for Education’s Relationship Support Interventions Evaluation, published in 2014. This sets out a detailed explanation of how the savings were calculated using a cost benefit analysis.</p> answering member printed Baroness Altmann question first answered 06/07/2015 13:22:18 answering member 4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann
	tabling member	3834 label Biography information for Lord West of Spithead

385303

	registered interest
	date	24/06/2015
	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	Pension Funds
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the remarks by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 7 January (HL Deb, col 432), when they plan to consult on improving transparency for pension savers regarding where their money is invested and how rights attached to it are being exercised; and when they plan to consider how secondary legislation could be used to ensure greater transparency for pension savers.
	tabling member printed	Lord Harrison
	uin	HL786
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/07/2015 answer text <p /> <p>The Government is committed to ensuring greater transparency for pension savers.</p><p> </p><p>From April this year, workplace schemes are required to report on the value delivered by costs and charges in their scheme for the first time. Building on this, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Financial Conduct Authority ran a joint Call for Evidence ‘Transaction Cost Disclosure: Improving Transparency in Workplace Pensions’, considering how transaction costs could be disclosed in a standardised way. This is the first phase of work required to meet duties under Section 44 of the Pensions Act 2014 to require transaction costs to be disclosed to members and others; and transaction costs and administration charges to be published. The Government is currently considering responses to the Call for Evidence.</p><p> </p><p>Transparency is not just about costs and charges. Earlier this year the Government consulted on changes to the Occupational Pension Schemes Investment Regulations requiring trustees to report how they take financial and non-financial factors into account when investing, and their schemes stewardship policy. The Government is currently considering responses to the consultation.</p><p> </p><p>The Government intends to consult on any secondary legislation required following these exercises later this year, and will consider what further proposals may be needed to ensure greater transparency for pension savers including consideration both of its duties under the Pensions Act 2014 and the remarks made in debates on 7 January.</p> answering member printed Baroness Altmann question first answered 06/07/2015 12:06:11 answering member 4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann
	tabling member	2488 label Biography information for Lord Harrison

386104

	registered interest
	date	29/06/2015
	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	State Retirement Pensions
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the latest estimate of the percentage of pensioners who will receive the full amount of the flat-rate State Pension from April 2016.
	tabling member printed	Lord Bradley
	uin	HL903
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/07/2015 answer text <p>Nearly 90% of people reaching State Pension age in 2016/17 would have the full rate of the new State Pension, or more, if we include the amount of additional State Pension they opted out of or were opted out of when contracted out of SERPS or State Second Pension (S2P) (additional pension).</p><p> </p><p>The percentage of pensioners reaching State Pension age in 2016/17 estimated to receive the full amount of the new State Pension directly from the state is around 37%. By 2020 this percentage will reach around 50% and by 2035 around 84%. Most people who contracted out of SERPS or S2P were required, as a condition of contracting out, to accrue an alternative private pension. This replaced the additional State Pension, which they were contracted-out of.</p><p> </p><p>This reflects the fact that when contracted out they have either paid National Insurance Contributions at a lower rate, or some of the National Insurance contributions they paid were used to contribute to a private pension instead of the additional State Pension. They paid lower National Insurance into the National Insurance system, which reflected the fact that they were contributing to a private pension instead.</p> answering member printed Baroness Altmann question first answered 13/07/2015 16:47:38 answering member 4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann
	tabling member	452 label Biography information for Lord Bradley

386489

	registered interest
	date	30/06/2015
	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	Employment: Autism
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what efforts they are making to raise awareness of employing people with autism.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Uddin
	uin	HL984
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/07/2015 answer text <p>The Government is acting to raise awareness regarding employment of people with autism and to support people on the autism spectrum to take up employment. For example,</p><p> </p><p>The Government’s Disability Confident campaign works with employers at a national and local level to help them to understand the benefits of employing disabled people, and promote good practice in recruitment and employment of disabled people, including people with autism.</p><p> </p><p>DWP has worked in close partnership with the Hidden Impairment National Group (HING), a national network of disabled people, medical professionals/ academics and disability specific organisations to produce an ‘Uncovering Hidden Impairments’ toolkit. This resource supports organisations in both the private and public sectors to confidently recruit and retain talented individuals with hidden impairment conditions.</p><p> </p><p>The Department for Education is funding <em>Ambitious about Autism </em>(2015-16) to explore innovative ways of supporting young people with Autism to make the transition from school to further education, and the <em>Autism Education Trust</em> (2015-16) to promote the availability of training on Autism to schools, early years and further education staff, and to revise national standards for Autism provision and a competency framework for those who work with children with Autism.</p><p> </p><p>Government has supported the development by NIACE of an employer toolkit that includes information to help employers to understand the benefits of employing apprentices with disabilities, and to access support.</p><p> </p><p>We are currently working with Autism charities to build an autism network across DWP Jobcentre Plus Offices to ensure we can provide the best possible service to those with autism.</p><p> </p><p>We have worked with Community Service Volunteers to introduce the Job-Shadowing Work Placement Initiative for young disabled people. The first tranche was very successful with 65% of young people having autistic spectrum conditions</p><p> </p><p>The Government’s Autism Strategy, and the updated Statutory Guidance published in March 2015, sets out in detail how Government will support the autism agenda nationally.</p> answering member printed Baroness Altmann grouped question UIN HL985 question first answered 14/07/2015 12:34:45 answering member 4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann
	tabling member	1827 label Biography information for Baroness Uddin

386490

	registered interest
	date	30/06/2015
	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	Employment: Autism
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to ensure that organisations in the private sector employ people with autism.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Uddin
	uin	HL985
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/07/2015 answer text <p>The Government is acting to raise awareness regarding employment of people with autism and to support people on the autism spectrum to take up employment. For example,</p><p> </p><p>The Government’s Disability Confident campaign works with employers at a national and local level to help them to understand the benefits of employing disabled people, and promote good practice in recruitment and employment of disabled people, including people with autism.</p><p> </p><p>DWP has worked in close partnership with the Hidden Impairment National Group (HING), a national network of disabled people, medical professionals/ academics and disability specific organisations to produce an ‘Uncovering Hidden Impairments’ toolkit. This resource supports organisations in both the private and public sectors to confidently recruit and retain talented individuals with hidden impairment conditions.</p><p> </p><p>The Department for Education is funding <em>Ambitious about Autism </em>(2015-16) to explore innovative ways of supporting young people with Autism to make the transition from school to further education, and the <em>Autism Education Trust</em> (2015-16) to promote the availability of training on Autism to schools, early years and further education staff, and to revise national standards for Autism provision and a competency framework for those who work with children with Autism.</p><p> </p><p>Government has supported the development by NIACE of an employer toolkit that includes information to help employers to understand the benefits of employing apprentices with disabilities, and to access support.</p><p> </p><p>We are currently working with Autism charities to build an autism network across DWP Jobcentre Plus Offices to ensure we can provide the best possible service to those with autism.</p><p> </p><p>We have worked with Community Service Volunteers to introduce the Job-Shadowing Work Placement Initiative for young disabled people. The first tranche was very successful with 65% of young people having autistic spectrum conditions</p><p> </p><p>The Government’s Autism Strategy, and the updated Statutory Guidance published in March 2015, sets out in detail how Government will support the autism agenda nationally.</p> answering member printed Baroness Altmann grouped question UIN HL984 question first answered 14/07/2015 12:34:45 answering member 4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann
	tabling member	1827 label Biography information for Baroness Uddin