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754954

	registered interest
	date	20/07/2017
	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	Workplace Pensions: Low Pay
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans his Department has to extend auto-enrolment to low earners.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	6400
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/09/2017 answer text <p>Personal care assistants who meet the eligibility criteria for automatic enrolment must already be automatically enrolled into a workplace pension by their employers.</p><p> </p><p>My Department is currently undertaking a review of the policy and operation of automatic enrolment. This includes looking at the existing policy coverage and how to achieve the right balance between enabling as many people as possible to save into a workplace pension, whilst ensuring that it should make economic sense for them to do so. The review report will be laid before Parliament at the end of the year. The review will have regard to the Equality Act and the principles of fairness, affordability and sustainability. This includes the need to balance the needs of individuals with the costs to employers and ensuring value for money for the taxpayer.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 6401 question first answered 06/09/2017 11:16:04 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

754952

	registered interest
	date	20/07/2017
	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	Workplace Pensions: Carers
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that carers have access to workplace pensions.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	6401
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/09/2017 answer text <p>Personal care assistants who meet the eligibility criteria for automatic enrolment must already be automatically enrolled into a workplace pension by their employers.</p><p> </p><p>My Department is currently undertaking a review of the policy and operation of automatic enrolment. This includes looking at the existing policy coverage and how to achieve the right balance between enabling as many people as possible to save into a workplace pension, whilst ensuring that it should make economic sense for them to do so. The review report will be laid before Parliament at the end of the year. The review will have regard to the Equality Act and the principles of fairness, affordability and sustainability. This includes the need to balance the needs of individuals with the costs to employers and ensuring value for money for the taxpayer.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 6400 question first answered 06/09/2017 11:16:04 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

754953

	registered interest
	date	20/07/2017
	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	State Retirement Pensions: Age
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of adults who would have to work longer as a result of proposals in the Cridland Review.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	6402
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/09/2017 answer text <p>We estimate that 6 million people in Great Britain would be affected by bringing forward the rise in State Pension age from 67 to 68 from 2044-46 to 2037-39 (those born between 6 April 1970 and 5 April 1978). These people would see their State Pension age increased by up to one year.</p><p> </p><p>For those who can work longer, doing so brings benefits both for individuals, through sustaining social networks and boosting subsequent retirement income, and for the economy. Research carried out in 2013 showed that, if everyone worked for one year longer, it would add 1% to GDP.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 06/09/2017 11:25:50 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

754951

	registered interest
	date	20/07/2017
	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	State Pension Age Independent Review
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the reasons are for the time taken to publish the Government's response to the Cridland review.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	6403
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/09/2017 answer text <p>The Pensions Act 2014 sets a statutory requirement for the Government to publish its review of State Pension age before 7 May 2017, but this was delayed because of the General Election being called before that date. The event of an election meant that the new Government needed to consider and make their own judgements on such issues. This was a significant decision with a weighty evidence base and it would have been irresponsible of this Government not to give this issue the consideration it deserved.</p><p> </p><p>The review was published on Wednesday 19 July 2017. Please find the below web link to the published report.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/630065/state-pension-age-review-final-report.pdf" target="_blank">Governments State pension age review final report</a></p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 06/09/2017 10:57:11 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

754934

	registered interest
	date	20/07/2017
	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	Social Security Benefits
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the projected number of children under the age of five who live in households that will be affected by the freeze on tax credits and jobseeker's allowance in (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18, (c) 2018-19 and (d) 2019-20.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	6670
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/09/2017 answer text <p>HMRC publishes annual estimates of child and working tax credits.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/613423/cwtc-main-Apr17.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/613423/cwtc-main-Apr17.pdf</a></p><p> </p><p>Provisional estimates for 2016/17 show approximately 1.84 million children under 5 living in families in receipt of tax credits.</p><p> </p><p>An Impact Assessment was also published alongside the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016. This considers impacts of the freeze on households and on protected groups including children and lone parents.</p><p><a href="http://www.parliament.uk/documents/impact-assessments/IA15-006C.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.parliament.uk/documents/impact-assessments/IA15-006C.pdf</a></p><p> </p><p>However, information on the children of recipients of Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) is not collected, and projections beyond 2016 of children under the age of 5 living in households in receipt of either tax credits or JSA have not been estimated.</p> answering member constituency Gosport answering member printed Caroline Dinenage question first answered 07/09/2017 09:05:24 answering member 4008 label Biography information for Dame Caroline Dinenage
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

754935

	registered interest
	date	20/07/2017
	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	Social Security Benefits
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the projected number of children under the age of five who live in households that will be affected by the benefits cap in each of the next five years.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	6669
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/09/2017 answer text <p>The Department does not hold any projections of the number of children under the age of 5 affected by the benefit cap.</p><p> </p><p>To collate and add on the additional data for all children under 5 and quality assure the figures to answer this PQ would incur disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>The Department published ad-hoc statistics in July 2017 which estimated that 56,000 households fall into the scope of the lower benefit cap in 2016/17. (Source: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-cap-estimated-impact-on-parents-by-age-of-youngest-child" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-cap-estimated-impact-on-parents-by-age-of-youngest-child</a>, Table 1, Estimated number of households in scope for the lower benefit cap prior to its introduction, by family type and age of youngest child: 2016/17).</p><p> </p><p>This does not take account of behavioural changes where people make the choice to move into employment or increase their hours of work or taken other action to move out of scope for the cap.</p><p> </p><p>The Department published an Impact Assessment on the introduction of the lower benefit cap in August 2016. (Source: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/548741/welfare-reform-and-work-act-impact-assessment-for-the-benefit-cap.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/548741/welfare-reform-and-work-act-impact-assessment-for-the-benefit-cap.pdf</a></p> answering member constituency Gosport answering member printed Caroline Dinenage question first answered 07/09/2017 08:49:39 answering member 4008 label Biography information for Dame Caroline Dinenage
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

754937

	registered interest
	date	20/07/2017
	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	Social Security Benefits
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children under the age of five were living in households affected by the benefits cap in each of the last four years.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	6668
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/09/2017 answer text <p>The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Gosport answering member printed Caroline Dinenage question first answered 07/09/2017 08:38:06 answering member 4008 label Biography information for Dame Caroline Dinenage
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

754514

	registered interest
	date	20/07/2017
	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	Pensions: Fees and Charges
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to improve the transparency of pension costs.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	6382
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/09/2017 answer text <p>It is important that pension savers know the costs and charges they are paying and the government is committed to making this happen. We want pension scheme members to have confidence that there are no hidden charges or fees being taken from their pots.</p><p> </p><p>Since 2015, we have required occupational and personal workplace pension schemes offering money purchase benefits, including master trust schemes, to produce an annual statement, which is available to members; which sets out the level of charges and, as far as they are able, transaction costs applicable to all funds; and the extent to which these charges and costs represent good value for members.</p><p> </p><p>It has previously been difficult for schemes to obtain information about the charges and transaction costs they incur. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) consulted last year on proposals requiring asset managers to disclose this information to trustees of occupational schemes offering money purchase benefits, and the governance committees for workplace personal pensions.</p><p> </p><p>The FCA will publish a Policy Statement later in the year setting out the final rules and guidance to disclose costs in a standardised format. We then intend to consult on how we can provide information about these costs and charges to the members of occupational schemes and to publish it. The FCA will, thereafter, introduce similar provisions for personal workplace pension schemes members.</p><p> </p><p>The FCA’s Asset Management Market Study indicated that there are significant issues with the way the investment market works. Savers, trustees, and scheme sponsors need a transparent, competitive and cost-effective investment market to provide for their security in later life and to keep their pension provision affordable. We will be studying the recommendations and proposed remedies closely to see what else government can do to support the FCA’s vital work in this area, which could deliver favourable outcomes for pension savers.</p><p> </p><p>To drive competitive pressure on asset managers the FCA recommended we look at barriers to scheme consolidation. We know that smaller pension schemes may not be able to negotiate or drive lower prices within this market, which in turn can lead to better outcomes for savers. Following a recent Call for Evidence, we are actively considering ways that we can simplify scheme consolidation and enable pension scheme scale to develop further.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 6008 6009 6011 6012 6381 question first answered 06/09/2017 10:27:04 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

754515

	registered interest
	date	20/07/2017
	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	Pensions: Fees and Charges
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to tackle the issue of hidden costs in pension pots.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	6381
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/09/2017 answer text <p>It is important that pension savers know the costs and charges they are paying and the government is committed to making this happen. We want pension scheme members to have confidence that there are no hidden charges or fees being taken from their pots.</p><p> </p><p>Since 2015, we have required occupational and personal workplace pension schemes offering money purchase benefits, including master trust schemes, to produce an annual statement, which is available to members; which sets out the level of charges and, as far as they are able, transaction costs applicable to all funds; and the extent to which these charges and costs represent good value for members.</p><p> </p><p>It has previously been difficult for schemes to obtain information about the charges and transaction costs they incur. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) consulted last year on proposals requiring asset managers to disclose this information to trustees of occupational schemes offering money purchase benefits, and the governance committees for workplace personal pensions.</p><p> </p><p>The FCA will publish a Policy Statement later in the year setting out the final rules and guidance to disclose costs in a standardised format. We then intend to consult on how we can provide information about these costs and charges to the members of occupational schemes and to publish it. The FCA will, thereafter, introduce similar provisions for personal workplace pension schemes members.</p><p> </p><p>The FCA’s Asset Management Market Study indicated that there are significant issues with the way the investment market works. Savers, trustees, and scheme sponsors need a transparent, competitive and cost-effective investment market to provide for their security in later life and to keep their pension provision affordable. We will be studying the recommendations and proposed remedies closely to see what else government can do to support the FCA’s vital work in this area, which could deliver favourable outcomes for pension savers.</p><p> </p><p>To drive competitive pressure on asset managers the FCA recommended we look at barriers to scheme consolidation. We know that smaller pension schemes may not be able to negotiate or drive lower prices within this market, which in turn can lead to better outcomes for savers. Following a recent Call for Evidence, we are actively considering ways that we can simplify scheme consolidation and enable pension scheme scale to develop further.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 6008 6009 6011 6012 6382 question first answered 06/09/2017 10:27:04 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

754516

	registered interest
	date	20/07/2017
	answering body	HM Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	CaTreasury
	hansard heading	Pensions
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will hold discussions with the Financial Conduct Authority to bring forward its postponed 2017 review of the effectiveness of Independent Governance Committees in protecting consumer interests in contract-based pension schemes.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	6383
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/09/2017 answer text <p>This is an operational matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), who are operationally independent from Government.</p><p> </p><p>The question has been passed on to the FCA. The FCA will reply directly to the Hon. Member by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.</p> answering member constituency North East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Stephen Barclay question first answered 06/09/2017 09:16:16 answering member 4095 label Biography information for Steve Barclay
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham