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1272044

	registered interest
	date	17/12/2020
	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	Pension Schemes Bill (HL)
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the timetable is for the implementation of (a) new criminal offences and (b) information-gathering powers contained in the Pension Schemes Bill; and whether they will apply (i) retrospectively and (ii) to pension schemes that have already closed.
	tabling member constituency	Wallasey
	tabling member printed	Ms Angela Eagle
	uin	131181
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/01/2021 answer text <p>Subject to Parliamentary processes, the Pension Schemes Bill should gain Royal Assent in due course. The Pensions Regulator will be producing guidance on the use of the new criminal sanction powers and it plans to undertake a consultation first with industry to ensure these vital views are captured. There are also other powers in Part 3 of the Bill that require implementing regulations and the aim is for these powers to be available to the Pensions Regulator by autumn 2021. None of the provisions in Part 3 of the Bill will be retrospective and the new criminal sanctions and information gathering powers will apply to all schemes where the act occurs, or in the case of a series of acts commences, after the powers come into force.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 11/01/2021 14:10:58 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1256670

	registered interest
	date	30/11/2020
	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	Pension Wise: North West
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people living in (a) the North West, (b) Liverpool City region, (c) Wirral and (d) Wallasey have had a Pension Wise guidance appointment by telephone or in person in each of the last 12 months.
	tabling member constituency	Wallasey
	tabling member printed	Ms Angela Eagle
	uin	122573
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/12/2020 answer text <p>The Money and Pensions Service published annual data on pension wise appointments for 2019-2020 here:</p><p><a href="https://moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pension-Wise-Service-Evaluation-report-2019-2020.pdf" target="_blank">https://moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pension-Wise-Service-Evaluation-report-2019-2020.pdf(opens in a new tab)</a>.</p><p> </p><p>This records that there were over 97k face to face and around 62k telephone appointments in 2019-20. This is the latest available annual published data.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 03/12/2020 13:49:42 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1245147

	registered interest
	date	20/10/2020
	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	Pensions: Fraud
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the number of pension scams during the covid-19 outbreak.
	tabling member constituency	Wallasey
	tabling member printed	Ms Angela Eagle
	uin	106219
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/10/2020 answer text <p>DWP is working across government and with regulators to monitor and respond to any increases in transfers or pension scams. To date, this monitoring has revealed little evidence to demonstrate an increase in either transfers or scams across the industry as a whole as confirmed by the independent regulator. This has been confirmed by responses from industry. The Government will continue to monitor and respond to any emerging evidence.</p><p>The Government established Project Bloom, a cross-government taskforce that brings together law enforcement, government and industry to share intelligence, raise awareness of and the reporting of scams through public communication campaigns, and take enforcement action where appropriate.</p><p>Please see links below for more information about the joint statement from Regulators and the Money Advice Service, and help available, produced by the Pension Protection Fund and supported by government.</p><p><a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions" target="_blank">https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions</a></p><p><a href="https://www.ppf.co.uk/sites/default/files/file-2020-05/COVID-19-and-your-pension.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.ppf.co.uk/sites/default/files/file-2020-05/COVID-19-and-your-pension.pdf</a></p><p>The Government continues to work with Regulators and enforcement agencies to prevent scams and take appropriate action. In the period March - July 2020, 116 reports of possible pension fraud were received by Action Fraud, compared to 179 for the same period in 2019.</p><p>Project Bloom has identified that the methodology of scammers is continually evolving, moving away from the traditional type of theft of peoples pensions through setting up a sham scheme, towards investment related fraud. Investment related fraud includes persuading individuals to invest in ventures that do not exist or using multiple charging structures that the member is not aware of.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 23/10/2020 14:05:54 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1245149

	registered interest
	date	20/10/2020
	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	Pensions: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have accessed and transferred their pension early since the start of the covid-19 outbreak; and how many of those have been classified as an unauthorised payment from their pension fund.
	tabling member constituency	Wallasey
	tabling member printed	Ms Angela Eagle
	uin	106220
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/10/2020 answer text <p>This government is committed to safeguarding consumer savings. We have introduced, with other departments, measures that assist all savers to understand their choices and the possible risks of the choices they make along with legislation to protect those most vulnerable to scams.</p><p>There is currently no information available about pension unauthorised payments since the onset of the Covid-19 outbreak. This is because administrators of a registered pension scheme must tell HMRC when certain reportable events occur; reportable events include unauthorised payments. The scheme administrator does this by completing and submitting an Event Report for a tax year, these must be received by HMRC by the 31<sup>st</sup> of January after the end of the tax year to which the Event Report relates. Therefore, reports for the period March to date are not available.</p><p>The data available from the industry has so far revealed little evidence of an increase in transfers or scams since the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak. Similarly, independent regulators report less of a problem. We will continue to monitor and assess if there has been any increase in pension scams activity as a result of the crisis.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 23/10/2020 14:06:21 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1245150

	registered interest
	date	20/10/2020
	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	Pensions: Fraud
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have (a) contacted Action Fraud regarding potential pension scams and (b) booked a Pension Wise guidance session since the start of the covid-19 outbreak.
	tabling member constituency	Wallasey
	tabling member printed	Ms Angela Eagle
	uin	106221
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/10/2020 answer text <p>In the period March – July 2020 116 reports of pension fraud were received by Action Fraud, compared to 179 for the same period in 2019. In recognition of the potential impact of Covid-19 on individual’s pensions savings the Department convened a cross-government and regulator group, to closely monitor and respond to any increase in transfers and scams. All of the participating organisations have confirmed that to date no evidence has emerged to demonstrate an increase in either transfers or scams, based on their internal monitoring of the industry. Although this is encouraging Government recognises it needs to continue to monitor and react to the changing environment.</p><p> </p><p>To ensure that people are able to fully access support and make informed decisions, a collaborative approach has been taken with the TPR, the FCA and MaPS in communicating to savers, to use Pension Wise or the Pensions Advisory Service channels for guidance before making decisions about retirement. There have been a total of 79,967 bookings for a Pension Wise guidance session between March 1<sup>st</sup>– October 20<sup>th</sup> 2020. The government is also taking action with the Pensions Schemes Bill.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 23/10/2020 14:02:28 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1245151

	registered interest
	date	20/10/2020
	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	Pensions: Fraud
	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 increase public understanding of the risks of pension scams.
	tabling member constituency	Wallasey
	tabling member printed	Ms Angela Eagle
	uin	106222
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/10/2020 answer text <p>The Government is committed to safeguarding consumer savings. The Government is raising public awareness of scams through ongoing communications directly from DWP and with other organisations.</p><p>Joint and independent communications from the FCA and tPR spelling out the dangers, what to watch out for and giving clarity to trustees and providers on the boundaries between guidance and advice have been issued since April this year (<a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions" target="_blank">https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions</a>). Prior to Covid-19 the FCA and tPR conducted regular campaigns, through the ScamSmart branding, to raise awareness of pension scams and what to watch out for, these have been deemed very successful, over 222,000 visited the ScamSmart website to find out how to identify a scam scheme as a result of the most recent pre Covid campaign, July – November 2019.</p><p>In addition, Government is actively monitoring the numbers of transfers and scams and preparing further policy responses. At the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, the Department convened a cross-government and regulator group to closely monitor and respond to any increase in transfers and scams. The group includes DWP, HMT, both the Pensions Regulator and the FCA as well as the Money and Pensions Service and the Pension Ombudsman. All of the participating organisations have confirmed that to date no evidence has emerged of an increase in either transfers or scams, based on their internal monitoring of the industry.</p><p>DWP continues to communicate regularly on social media to set out the warning signs of a scam and has made multiple posts referencing Pension Scams and #ScamSmart in total across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in the period March to September 2020.</p><p>The Pension Schemes Bill was amended by Government in the House of Lords to add to the example conditions that can be placed on the statutory right to transfer by regulations. This amendment makes it explicit that the regulations can require that in certain circumstances the member demonstrates they have taken information or guidance before the transfer can proceed to ensure they are informed of the risks.</p><p>The Government wants to support all pension savers aged 50 and over in the lead up to accessing their pension savings, to make informed choices about their retirement income, which includes making them aware of Pension Wise through communications from their pension scheme trustees. We intend introducing Single page summary and single page risk warnings from age 50 and then every 5 years until the point they access their pension savings.</p><p>The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) conducted trials to establish different ways to encourage more people to take Pension Wise guidance before accessing their pension savings under Pension Freedoms. These trials found that a nudge developed using behavioural science principles significantly increased take-up of Pension Wise guidance among those wishing to access their pension savings under pension freedoms. The evaluation report was published in July 2020. We are working to develop the most effective and proportionate way to implement this nudge to pension guidance. We intend to publish our proposed way forward shortly.</p><p>In addition, we have banned cold calling and seek to provide and prosecute and publicise the conviction of all who commit pension scams.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 106223 question first answered 23/10/2020 14:04:14 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1245153

	registered interest
	date	20/10/2020
	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	Pensions: Fraud
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of implementing a training programme for pension and finance professionals to ensure they can more readily identify scam risks.
	tabling member constituency	Wallasey
	tabling member printed	Ms Angela Eagle
	uin	106223
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/10/2020 answer text <p>The Government is committed to safeguarding consumer savings. The Government is raising public awareness of scams through ongoing communications directly from DWP and with other organisations.</p><p>Joint and independent communications from the FCA and tPR spelling out the dangers, what to watch out for and giving clarity to trustees and providers on the boundaries between guidance and advice have been issued since April this year (<a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions" target="_blank">https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions</a>). Prior to Covid-19 the FCA and tPR conducted regular campaigns, through the ScamSmart branding, to raise awareness of pension scams and what to watch out for, these have been deemed very successful, over 222,000 visited the ScamSmart website to find out how to identify a scam scheme as a result of the most recent pre Covid campaign, July – November 2019.</p><p>In addition, Government is actively monitoring the numbers of transfers and scams and preparing further policy responses. At the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, the Department convened a cross-government and regulator group to closely monitor and respond to any increase in transfers and scams. The group includes DWP, HMT, both the Pensions Regulator and the FCA as well as the Money and Pensions Service and the Pension Ombudsman. All of the participating organisations have confirmed that to date no evidence has emerged of an increase in either transfers or scams, based on their internal monitoring of the industry.</p><p>DWP continues to communicate regularly on social media to set out the warning signs of a scam and has made multiple posts referencing Pension Scams and #ScamSmart in total across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in the period March to September 2020.</p><p>The Pension Schemes Bill was amended by Government in the House of Lords to add to the example conditions that can be placed on the statutory right to transfer by regulations. This amendment makes it explicit that the regulations can require that in certain circumstances the member demonstrates they have taken information or guidance before the transfer can proceed to ensure they are informed of the risks.</p><p>The Government wants to support all pension savers aged 50 and over in the lead up to accessing their pension savings, to make informed choices about their retirement income, which includes making them aware of Pension Wise through communications from their pension scheme trustees. We intend introducing Single page summary and single page risk warnings from age 50 and then every 5 years until the point they access their pension savings.</p><p>The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) conducted trials to establish different ways to encourage more people to take Pension Wise guidance before accessing their pension savings under Pension Freedoms. These trials found that a nudge developed using behavioural science principles significantly increased take-up of Pension Wise guidance among those wishing to access their pension savings under pension freedoms. The evaluation report was published in July 2020. We are working to develop the most effective and proportionate way to implement this nudge to pension guidance. We intend to publish our proposed way forward shortly.</p><p>In addition, we have banned cold calling and seek to provide and prosecute and publicise the conviction of all who commit pension scams.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 106222 question first answered 23/10/2020 14:04:14 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1221082

	registered interest
	date	06/07/2020
	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	Pensions: Advisory Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of Defined Contribution pension savers that have not received regulated financial advice had a telephone appointment with the Pension Wise guidance service before accessing their pension benefits in the last 12 months.
	tabling member constituency	Wallasey
	tabling member printed	Ms Angela Eagle
	uin	69459
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/07/2020 answer text <p>Data on the number of Defined Contribution (DC) contract-based pots accessed without financial advice, but after taking Pension Wise guidance can be found in Tables 10-13 in FCA’s retirement income market data 2018/19 release: <a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/data/retirement-income-market-data" target="_blank">https://www.fca.org.uk/data/retirement-income-market-data</a>. This data is not broken down by appointment type and as it does not include the trust-based DC market, does not cover the entire DC decumulation market.</p><p> </p><p>We do not hold data on the proportion of Defined Contribution savers that this represents, as people may have multiple pots and may not seek advice or guidance on each pot.</p><p> </p><p>The Money and Pensions Service publish information on the number of Pension Wise appointments delivered by appointment type in their Pension Wise service evaluation report 2018/19: <a href="https://moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk/2020/01/24/pension-wise-service-evaluation-2018-19-experiences-and-outcomes-of-customers/" target="_blank">https://moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk/2020/01/24/pension-wise-service-evaluation-2018-19-experiences-and-outcomes-of-customers/</a></p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 09/07/2020 13:13:53 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1216375

	registered interest
	date	22/06/2020
	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	Pensions: Income
	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 taking to tackle the gap in pension income for (a) people who are BAME, (b) women and (c) low paid earners.
	tabling member constituency	Wallasey
	tabling member printed	Ms Angela Eagle
	uin	62301
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/06/2020 answer text <p>The level of earnings at which workers are automatically enrolled (the earnings trigger) is subject to an annual statutory review. The review includes analysis of the equalities impact and an assessment of reducing the trigger to the National Insurance threshold.</p><p> </p><p>Since 2014/15, the annual reviews have concluded that the earnings trigger be frozen at £10,000. People earning below the trigger have a right to opt in, and if they are earning above the lower earnings limit (£6,240 in 2020-21) they will receive an employer contribution.</p><p> </p><p>Automatic enrolment has hugely increased women’s pension participation, participation across all ethnic groups, and among lower earners. Among eligible women in the private sector, participation has increased from 40% in 2012 to 86% in 2019, equal to men. Among eligible employees in the private sector earning between £10,000 and £20,000, 19% were participating into a workplace pension in 2012. As of 2019, this rate had increased to 79%, a 60 percentage point increase.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 62302 62303 question first answered 25/06/2020 16:43:25 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1216376

	registered interest
	date	22/06/2020
	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	National Insurance Contributions
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department made of the potential merits of lowering the annual earnings necessary for auto-enrolment to the National Insurance lower earnings limit of £6240.
	tabling member constituency	Wallasey
	tabling member printed	Ms Angela Eagle
	uin	62302
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/06/2020 answer text <p>The level of earnings at which workers are automatically enrolled (the earnings trigger) is subject to an annual statutory review. The review includes analysis of the equalities impact and an assessment of reducing the trigger to the National Insurance threshold.</p><p> </p><p>Since 2014/15, the annual reviews have concluded that the earnings trigger be frozen at £10,000. People earning below the trigger have a right to opt in, and if they are earning above the lower earnings limit (£6,240 in 2020-21) they will receive an employer contribution.</p><p> </p><p>Automatic enrolment has hugely increased women’s pension participation, participation across all ethnic groups, and among lower earners. Among eligible women in the private sector, participation has increased from 40% in 2012 to 86% in 2019, equal to men. Among eligible employees in the private sector earning between £10,000 and £20,000, 19% were participating into a workplace pension in 2012. As of 2019, this rate had increased to 79%, a 60 percentage point increase.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 62301 62303 question first answered 25/06/2020 16:43:25 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle