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1023922

registered interest
date	12/12/2018
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: Females
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints of maladministration from women born in the 1950s relating to the change in their state pension age submitted to her Department’s Independent Case Examiner have been (a) resolved, (b) rejected, (c) closed for other reasons.
tabling member constituency	Ceredigion
tabling member printed	Ben Lake
uin	201695
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/12/2018 answer text <p>Individual government departments have long established complaints procedures. That approach has not changed under Labour governments 1997-2010 or successive governments. The DWP has a two tier complaints process which considers formal complaints about our service<strong>. </strong>Once a complainant has exhausted the DWP complaint process they are signposted to the Independent Case Examiner’s Office if they are dissatisfied with the final response to their complaint. The Independent Case Examiner is independent.</p><p>The table below provides information on the method by which complaints submitted to the Independent Case Examiner’s (ICE) Office, concerning changes to women’s State Pension age, were closed.</p><p><ins class="ministerial"></ins></p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Reason for complaint closure</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Number</ins> <ins class="ministerial"> </ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">(a) Resolved (we have interpreted this as meaning closed following issue of an ICE investigation report)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">192</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">(b) Rejected (the complaint failed to meet the ICE acceptance criteria)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">1,598</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">(c) Paused for other reasons (includes withdrawn complaints and those closed following a High Court decision to grant permission for a Judicial Review of the Departments handling of the change to women’s State Pension age – it is not within the ICE remit to consider issues which are, or have been, subject to legal proceedings.)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">2,506</ins></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><ins class="ministerial"><strong> </strong></ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">The Independent Case Examiner’s Office received the first complaints from women relating to changes in their state pension age in October 2016. The table below provides details of the numbers received in each of the past three reporting years.</ins></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Year (April to March)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Number received</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">2016/2017</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">243</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">2017/2018</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">2981</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">2018/2019 (to 13 December 2018)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">1072</ins></p></td></tr></tbody></table> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 17/12/2018 15:27:52 question first ministerially corrected 18/12/2018 17:16:19 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 92203 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	4630 label Biography information for Ben Lake

1006972

registered interest
date	14/11/2018
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 people have had (a) a telephone appointment, (b) a face to face appointment and (c) completed a digital journey with the Pension Wise guidance service in the 12 month period ending October 2018.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
uin	191266
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/11/2018 answer text <p>In the 12 month period ending 31 October 2018, there were (a) 32,440 telephone appointments, (b) 78,961 face to face appointments and (c) 44,969 digital journey completions.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 20/11/2018 14:18:54 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 85865 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1006977

registered interest
date	14/11/2018
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, with reference to the Pension Wise guidance service, what information her Department holds on the (a) demographic characteristics of and (b) actions and decisions taken as a result of that guidance being sought by people who have completed a (i) telephone appointment, (ii) face-to-face appointment and (iii) digital journey with that service in the 12 month period ending October 2018.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
uin	191268
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/11/2018 answer text <p>Information on demographic characteristics of Pension Wise Customers and actions and decisions taken as a result of the guidance are published in the Pension Wise Service Evaluation. The latest published report covers 2016/17 and can be found here:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/653621/pension-wise-service-evaluation-full-year-findings.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/653621/pension-wise-service-evaluation-full-year-findings.pdf</a></p><p> </p><p>The demographic profiles of telephone and face-to-face customers are given and compared in Section 2: Customer profiles (pages 4-9). The steps and decisions taken by Pension Wise appointment customers are covered in Section 7: Steps taken and Section 8: Making a decision (pages 32-42).</p><p> </p><p>The Pension Wise Service Evaluation report for 2017/18 is forthcoming and will be similarly available on GOV.UK once published. The sampling for the annual Service Evaluation surveys is based around appointments delivered in the autumn of each year. As there are few seasonal differences in customer profiles, we would expect the data in the successive reports to reflect the profiles, experiences and outcomes of customers across the financial year that they relate to.</p><p> </p><p>The Service Evaluation for 2018/19, is currently in the field and publication of the report is expected to be in Autumn 2019.</p><p> </p><p>Customers completing the digital journey are not covered by the published research findings or the forthcoming report. We are looking to include this channel in the 2018/19 Pension Wise Service Evaluation survey sampling and reporting.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 20/11/2018 14:57:39 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 85872 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

989657

registered interest
date	17/10/2018
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	Television Licences: Older People
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of pensioners in receipt of free TV licences in each parliamentary constituency in Wales.
tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
uin	180653
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/10/2018 answer text <p>The department does not hold data on the number of households in receipt of a free television license broken down by Parliamentary constituency.</p><p> </p><p>The number of households in receipt of winter fuel payment (aged 75 and over) by Parliamentary constituency can be used as a proxy for television license (assuming those in receipt of winter fuel payment have a television) and can be found in the dataset ‘Households by Parliamentary constituency and age, Winter Fuel Payment, 2017 to 2018’ via the following link:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/winter-fuel-payment-recipient-and-household-figures-2017-to-2018" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/winter-fuel-payment-recipient-and-household-figures-2017-to-2018</a></p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 22/10/2018 17:16:11 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 80039 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

973347

registered interest
date	13/09/2018
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: Females
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 efficacy of the Independent Case Examiner in investigating complaints from women affected by state pension age equalisation measures.
tabling member constituency	Edinburgh West
tabling member printed	Christine Jardine
uin	174839
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/10/2018 answer text <p>The approach of successive governments has been consistent. The Independent Case Examiner is independent. She is appointed under contract to adjudicate on escalated complaints about the DWP, and its contracted service providers, in cases where the complainant has exhausted the relevant internal complaints process and remains dissatisfied. If a complainant is dissatisfied with the outcome of an Independent Case Examiner investigation (or the service provided by the Independent Case Examiner) they can ask their Member of Parliament to escalate their complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman</p><p>Ministers have no role in assessing the efficacy of the Independent Case Examiner in investigating complaints from women affected by State Pension age equalisation measures.</p><p> </p><p>The Independent Case Examiner resources are reviewed on an annual basis. Since October 2017, the Independent Case Examiner has experienced increased levels of referrals associated with legislative changes to State Pension age for women. The Independent Case Examiner responded by dedicating a team of three investigation case managers.</p><p> </p><p>The Independent Case Examiner aims to complete any investigation within 20 weeks of starting work on a case. The Independent Case Examiner reports related to legislative changes to State Pension age for women that have been concluded to date have been completed within an average of 9.75 weeks. To date, the Independent Case Examiner had not upheld any case specific complaints that the DWP failed to provide adequate and timely information relating to the increase in State Pension age. All final Independent Case Examiner reports explain how the complainant can escalate their complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s Office. The Parliamentary Health and Service Ombudsman make final decisions on complaints that have not been resolved by UK Government Departments. This was set up in 1967 under the then Labour Government.</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 174840 question first answered 11/10/2018 12:15:24 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 77326 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	4634 label Biography information for Christine Jardine

973350

registered interest
date	13/09/2018
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: Females
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 Independent Case Examiner's progress in dealing with complaints made by women affected by the state pension age equalisation measures.
tabling member constituency	Edinburgh West
tabling member printed	Christine Jardine
uin	174840
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/10/2018 answer text <p>The approach of successive governments has been consistent. The Independent Case Examiner is independent. She is appointed under contract to adjudicate on escalated complaints about the DWP, and its contracted service providers, in cases where the complainant has exhausted the relevant internal complaints process and remains dissatisfied. If a complainant is dissatisfied with the outcome of an Independent Case Examiner investigation (or the service provided by the Independent Case Examiner) they can ask their Member of Parliament to escalate their complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman</p><p>Ministers have no role in assessing the efficacy of the Independent Case Examiner in investigating complaints from women affected by State Pension age equalisation measures.</p><p> </p><p>The Independent Case Examiner resources are reviewed on an annual basis. Since October 2017, the Independent Case Examiner has experienced increased levels of referrals associated with legislative changes to State Pension age for women. The Independent Case Examiner responded by dedicating a team of three investigation case managers.</p><p> </p><p>The Independent Case Examiner aims to complete any investigation within 20 weeks of starting work on a case. The Independent Case Examiner reports related to legislative changes to State Pension age for women that have been concluded to date have been completed within an average of 9.75 weeks. To date, the Independent Case Examiner had not upheld any case specific complaints that the DWP failed to provide adequate and timely information relating to the increase in State Pension age. All final Independent Case Examiner reports explain how the complainant can escalate their complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s Office. The Parliamentary Health and Service Ombudsman make final decisions on complaints that have not been resolved by UK Government Departments. This was set up in 1967 under the then Labour Government.</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 174839 question first answered 11/10/2018 12:15:24 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 77327 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	4634 label Biography information for Christine Jardine

935076

registered interest
date	05/07/2018
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: Females
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of the average time it has taken for Department to resolve a complaint relating to the increase to women's state pension age.
tabling member constituency	Hemsworth
tabling member printed	Jon Trickett
uin	161103
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/07/2018 answer text <p>All government Departments have routine complaints procedures, this has been the case under successive governments.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has a two tier complaints process which considers formal complaints about our service. As outlined on Gov.uk, DWP complaints processes encourages customers in the first instance to raise their issues with the office they are dealing with, as a business as usual contact, so we put things right.</p><p> </p><p>If the customer remains unhappy with the response, they can escalate their concerns, which will be dealt with by the Complaints Resolution Team as part of the formal DWP complaints process. The complaint is independently investigated. Where cases cannot be resolved to the customer’s satisfaction, the customer can escalate their complaint to the Director General as part of the tier two complaint process.</p><p> </p><p>Escalated complaints represent the final business review and response to the complaint.</p><p>Once a complainant has exhausted the DWP complaint process they are signposted to the Independent Case Examiner’s (ICE) Office if they are dissatisfied with the final response to their complaint.</p><p> </p><p>Complaints received from women born in the 1950s and affected by changes in State Pension age are handled in line with the overall Departmental complaints process published on Gov.uk.</p><p> </p><p>The role of the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) is to consider case-specific complaints of maladministration (service failure). The vast majority of the complaints that are referred to ICE are complex and require the circumstances of each case to be considered on its merits. Prior to the WASPI campaign the ICE Office routinely accepted in the region of 1,100 and 1,200 complaints for examination each year. At the end of February 2018, the Office had accepted 1,907 WASPI complaints alone.</p><p> </p><p>In January 2017, the ICE Office took the decision to bring a lead case into investigation in order to familiarise itself with the issues underpinning the campaign. This investigation concluded in June 2017 – the ICE did not uphold the complaint. Whilst the Office has had no additional resource to deal with the WASPI campaign complaints, a dedicated team of investigation case managers was established (from within existing resources) in October 2017 to investigate this group of complaints. The ICE Office aim to complete investigation within 20 weeks of starting work on a case, the WASPI related ICE reports that had been concluded to date have been completed within an average of 9.75 weeks. To date, the ICE had not upheld any case specific complaints that DWP failed to provide adequate and timely information relating to the increase in their State Pension age. All final ICE reports explain how the complainant can escalate their complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s Office.</p><p> </p><p>There are no plans to dedicate additional resources to investigating this group of complaints, as to do so would disadvantage other groups of complainants whose cases are awaiting investigation.</p><p> </p><p>The Parliamentary Health and Service Ombudsman make final decisions on complaints that have not been resolved by UK Government Departments. This was set up in 1967 under the then Labour Government.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 11/07/2018 14:54:23 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 68842 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	410 label Biography information for Jon Trickett