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173571

	registered interest
	date	14/01/2015
	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	Winter Fuel Payment
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many recipients of the Winter Fuel Payment are higher rate taxpayers.
	tabling member printed	Lord Tyler
	uin	HL4131
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2015 answer text <p /> <p>Eligibility for Winter Fuel Payments is based on female State Pension age. The latest estimates we have show that there are currently around 600,000 higher and additional rate taxpayers in Great Britain in 2014/15 who are above the female State Pension age and therefore qualify for Winter Fuel Payments<sup>1</sup>.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We ask people who want to return their payment to do so by post so that it can be dealt with securely under existing Departmental financial processes and recorded against their Winter Fuel Payment account. We also ask for a covering letter indicating whether or not they wish us to continue to issue payments in future years.</p><p> </p><p>Returned payments should be sent to the address on the issuing letter or to the office that pays the claimant’s benefit.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The latest estimates we have show that treating Winter Fuel Payments as taxable income would bring in around £250 million a year of additional revenue<sup>2</sup>.</p><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><p>1. This estimate is based on the 2011/12 Survey of Personal Incomes using economic assumptions consistent with the OBR’s November 2014 economic and fiscal outlook.</p><p>The estimate uses ONS population projections at mid year 2012 adjusted for financial years.</p><p>The estimate is rounded to the nearest 100,000.</p><p> </p><p>2. This estimate is based on DWP modelling using HMRC taxpayer data from November 2012 and Winter Fuel Payment caseload data from Winter 2013.</p><p>This takes into account revenue from Basic, Higher and Additional rate taxpayers.</p><p>Winter Fuel Payment rates are assumed to be £200 per year for recipients under 80 and £300 a year for recipients aged 80 and over.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud grouped question UIN HL4132 HL4133 question first answered 26/01/2015 12:13:04 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	225 label Biography information for Lord Tyler

173572

	registered interest
	date	14/01/2015
	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	Winter Fuel Payment: Repayments
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, and if so how, recipients of the Winter Fuel Payment may return their payment to the Treasury.
	tabling member printed	Lord Tyler
	uin	HL4132
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2015 answer text <p>Eligibility for Winter Fuel Payments is based on female State Pension age. The latest estimates we have show that there are currently around 600,000 higher and additional rate taxpayers in Great Britain in 2014/15 who are above the female State Pension age and therefore qualify for Winter Fuel Payments<sup>1</sup>.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We ask people who want to return their payment to do so by post so that it can be dealt with securely under existing Departmental financial processes and recorded against their Winter Fuel Payment account. We also ask for a covering letter indicating whether or not they wish us to continue to issue payments in future years.</p><p> </p><p>Returned payments should be sent to the address on the issuing letter or to the office that pays the claimant’s benefit.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The latest estimates we have show that treating Winter Fuel Payments as taxable income would bring in around £250 million a year of additional revenue<sup>2</sup>.</p><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><p>1. This estimate is based on the 2011/12 Survey of Personal Incomes using economic assumptions consistent with the OBR’s November 2014 economic and fiscal outlook.</p><p>The estimate uses ONS population projections at mid year 2012 adjusted for financial years.</p><p>The estimate is rounded to the nearest 100,000.</p><p> </p><p>2. This estimate is based on DWP modelling using HMRC taxpayer data from November 2012 and Winter Fuel Payment caseload data from Winter 2013.</p><p>This takes into account revenue from Basic, Higher and Additional rate taxpayers.</p><p>Winter Fuel Payment rates are assumed to be £200 per year for recipients under 80 and £300 a year for recipients aged 80 and over.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud grouped question UIN HL4131 HL4133 question first answered 26/01/2015 12:13:04 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	225 label Biography information for Lord Tyler

173573

	registered interest
	date	14/01/2015
	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	Winter Fuel 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 revenues which would be realised by applying income tax to Winter Fuel Payments.
	tabling member printed	Lord Tyler
	uin	HL4133
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2015 answer text <p>Eligibility for Winter Fuel Payments is based on female State Pension age. The latest estimates we have show that there are currently around 600,000 higher and additional rate taxpayers in Great Britain in 2014/15 who are above the female State Pension age and therefore qualify for Winter Fuel Payments<sup>1</sup>.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We ask people who want to return their payment to do so by post so that it can be dealt with securely under existing Departmental financial processes and recorded against their Winter Fuel Payment account. We also ask for a covering letter indicating whether or not they wish us to continue to issue payments in future years.</p><p> </p><p>Returned payments should be sent to the address on the issuing letter or to the office that pays the claimant’s benefit.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The latest estimates we have show that treating Winter Fuel Payments as taxable income would bring in around £250 million a year of additional revenue<sup>2</sup>.</p><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><p>1. This estimate is based on the 2011/12 Survey of Personal Incomes using economic assumptions consistent with the OBR’s November 2014 economic and fiscal outlook.</p><p>The estimate uses ONS population projections at mid year 2012 adjusted for financial years.</p><p>The estimate is rounded to the nearest 100,000.</p><p> </p><p>2. This estimate is based on DWP modelling using HMRC taxpayer data from November 2012 and Winter Fuel Payment caseload data from Winter 2013.</p><p>This takes into account revenue from Basic, Higher and Additional rate taxpayers.</p><p>Winter Fuel Payment rates are assumed to be £200 per year for recipients under 80 and £300 a year for recipients aged 80 and over.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud grouped question UIN HL4131 HL4132 question first answered 26/01/2015 12:13:05 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	225 label Biography information for Lord Tyler

175558

	registered interest
	date	20/01/2015
	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	Shared Housing
	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 has taken to ensure that the shared accommodation rate is representative of the real cost of renting shared accommodation.
	tabling member constituency	Cambridge
	tabling member printed	Dr Julian Huppert
	uin	907191
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2015 answer text <p /> <p>On behalf of DWP, the Rent Officer Services, collect evidence of a wide range of achieved rents for each area and use these to set Local Housing Allowance rates, in line with the current policy for Local Housing Allowance uprating.</p><p> </p><p>Currently, increases to Local Housing Allowance rates are limited to one per cent. However, in areas where there have been the greatest divergences between rates and rents, we are increasing rates by up to 4 per cent through Targeted Affordability Funding.</p><p> </p><p>In 2014/15, this meant that 56 out of the 192 Shared Accommodation Rates were increased by 4 per cent. In 2015/16, there will be £95 million available for the Targeted Affordability funding and we will be increasing 63 out of the 192 Shared Accommodation Rates by 4 per cent.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Thornbury and Yate answering member printed Steve Webb question first answered 26/01/2015 17:29:41 answering member 220 label Biography information for Steve Webb
	tabling member	3931 label Biography information for Dr Julian Huppert

175168

	registered interest
	date	21/01/2015
	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	Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether it remains his estimate that the number of claimants of universal credit will reach 100,000 by May 2015, as forecast on page 30 of his Department's document Universal Credit at work, published in October 2014.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	221544
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2015 answer text <p /> <p>The latest forecast agreed with OBR still rounds to 0.1 million cases as set out in Universal Credit at Work.</p> answering member constituency Forest of Dean answering member printed Mr Mark Harper question first answered 26/01/2015 17:11:33 answering member 1520 label Biography information for Mr Mark Harper
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

175557

	registered interest
	date	20/01/2015
	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	Social Security Benefits: Disqualification
	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 he has made of the effectiveness of his Department's social security sanctions policy.
	tabling member constituency	Oldham East and Saddleworth
	tabling member printed	Debbie Abrahams
	uin	907174
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2015 answer text <p /> <p>Through his independent review of sanctions, Matthew Oakley confirmed that “benefit sanctions provide a vital backdrop in the social security system for jobseekers” and are a “key element of the mutual obligation that underpins both the effectiveness and fairness of the social security system”</p><p> </p><p>International evidence is also clear – a conditional benefit system works – it promotes job search. The vast majority comply and move into work.</p><p> </p><p>There are nearly a million fewer workless people since 2010.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Wirral West answering member printed Esther McVey question first answered 26/01/2015 17:48:02 answering member 4084 label Biography information for Esther McVey
	tabling member	4212 label Biography information for Debbie Abrahams

174485

	registered interest
	date	19/01/2015
	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	Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any people claiming universal credit are subject to in-work conditionality.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	221232
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2015 answer text <p /> <p>Universal Credit ensures that people are better off in work – and makes it pay for people to increase their earnings through more or better paid work.</p><p> </p><p>We will, for the first time, be supporting people in low-paid work to take active steps to increase their earnings.</p><p> </p><p>We first need to build the evidence on what can be effective in helping people to earn more. We are therefore committed to testing and learning what works, including the role and impact of conditionality.</p><p> </p><p>We will evaluate this through the first trial that will start in April 2015 to inform decisions on extending in-work conditionality.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Wirral West answering member printed Esther McVey question first answered 26/01/2015 17:52:04 answering member 4084 label Biography information for Esther McVey previous answer version 39878 answering member constituency Wirral West answering member printed Esther McVey answering member 4084 label Biography information for Esther McVey
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

175555

	registered interest
	date	20/01/2015
	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	Unemployment: Young People
	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 he has made of trends in youth unemployment.
	tabling member constituency	Wolverhampton South West
	tabling member printed	Paul Uppal
	uin	907192
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2015 answer text <p /> <p>Youth unemployment has fallen 175,000 since 2010, and the youth claimant count is the lowest since the 1970s.</p><p> </p><p>In Wolverhampton South West, the youth claimant count has nearly halved since 2010 – falling by over 400.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Wirral West answering member printed Esther McVey question first answered 26/01/2015 17:40:03 answering member 4084 label Biography information for Esther McVey
	tabling member	4078 label Biography information for Paul Uppal

175171

	registered interest
	date	21/01/2015
	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	Work Programme
	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 20 January 2015 to Question 220893, which aspects of the new closer working between jobcentres and Work Programme prime providers are improving relationships between them.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	221549
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2015 answer text <p>Because of the closer working approach, Jobcentre Plus and Benefit Delivery Centre representatives now meet with Work Programme performance managers prior to the monthly contract performance review meetings with providers. These meetings allow representatives to agree performance issues for discussion with the provider.</p><p> </p><p>Work Programme providers and Jobcentre Plus have worked together since the start of the programme. In January 2013, as part of our commitment to continuous improvement we called for the development of closer working with providers to help the programme progress and achieve mutual objectives. Statistical releases have shown that performance has continually improved since the programme was introduced in June 2011.</p> answering member constituency Wirral West answering member printed Esther McVey grouped question UIN 221550 question first answered 26/01/2015 17:42:36 answering member 4084 label Biography information for Esther McVey
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

175172

	registered interest
	date	21/01/2015
	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	Work Programme
	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 20 January 2015 to Question 220893, when the new closer working approach was introduced; and what figures he plans to use to measure that approach's effectiveness.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	221550
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2015 answer text <p>Because of the closer working approach, Jobcentre Plus and Benefit Delivery Centre representatives now meet with Work Programme performance managers prior to the monthly contract performance review meetings with providers. These meetings allow representatives to agree performance issues for discussion with the provider.</p><p> </p><p>Work Programme providers and Jobcentre Plus have worked together since the start of the programme. In January 2013, as part of our commitment to continuous improvement we called for the development of closer working with providers to help the programme progress and achieve mutual objectives. Statistical releases have shown that performance has continually improved since the programme was introduced in June 2011.</p> answering member constituency Wirral West answering member printed Esther McVey grouped question UIN 221549 question first answered 26/01/2015 17:42:36 answering member 4084 label Biography information for Esther McVey
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms