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845519

	registered interest
	date	20/02/2018
	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	Long Term Unemployed People: Mental Health
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of long-term unemployment on the mental health needs of claimants.
	tabling member constituency	Windsor
	tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
	uin	128491
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/02/2018 answer text <p>We know that the longer a working age person is out of work, the more difficult it is for them to return to work and their health and wellbeing may worsen as a result, which is why improving employment support for people with mental health issues is a key priority for this Government.</p><p>The Command Paper <em>Improving Lives: The Future of Work, Health and Disability</em>, published in November 2017, outlines actions to improve out of work support, including:</p><ul><li>Investment in trials, proofs of concept and feasibility studies to test ways to provide specialist support for people with mental health conditions;</li><li>Doubling the number of employment advisers working in NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapies services by over 300 by 2019, enabling greater provision of integrated psychological treatment and employment support;</li><li>Enhancing mental health training for Jobcentre work coaches;</li><li>Supporting NHS plans to increase access to the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model – a model of integrated employment support within secondary mental health care services.</li></ul> answering member constituency Truro and Falmouth answering member printed Sarah Newton question first answered 26/02/2018 12:21:10 answering member 4071 label Biography information for Sarah Newton
	tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

845531

	registered interest
	date	20/02/2018
	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	Support for Mortgage Interest
	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 the potential effect of mortgage rate increases on the (a) loan to value ratio and (b) viability of retaining ownership of a property for people affected by the Loans for Mortgage Interest Regulations 2017.
	tabling member constituency	Kilmarnock and Loudoun
	tabling member printed	Alan Brown
	uin	128503
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/02/2018 answer text <p>Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) loans provide robust protection against repossession and will be offered to all eligible owner-occupiers regardless of the loan to value ratio of their property or the level of equity available.</p><p> </p><p>A standard interest rate (SIR) is used to calculate Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) payments and is set at a level equal to the Bank of England's published monthly average mortgage interest rate. A change to the standard interest rate will occur when the Bank of England average mortgage rate differs by 0.5 percentage points or more from the SIR. If average mortgage interest rates increase beyond this threshold, SMI payments to customers will increase accordingly.</p> answering member constituency North West Hampshire answering member printed Kit Malthouse question first answered 23/02/2018 16:54:50 answering member 4495 label Biography information for Kit Malthouse
	tabling member	4470 label Biography information for Alan Brown

845599

	registered interest
	date	20/02/2018
	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	Jobseeker's Allowance: Disqualification
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her policy is on job seekers allowance claimants being sanctioned for spelling mistakes in their CVs.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	128571
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/02/2018 answer text <p>Claimants will not be sanctioned for providing a CV containing spelling mistakes.</p><p> </p><p>However, it could be envisaged that, where in order to improve a claimant’s chances in the job market, a Work Coach may agree a requirement with the claimant to amend spelling mistakes on their CV (but would always support them to do so). If the claimant then fails to complete this agreed requirement without good reason they could be sanctioned, but it would be about the failure to deliver on an agreed ask, rather than a claimant’s initial spelling error on their cv. Decision Makers will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities, and any evidence of good reason into account before making a decision.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 23/02/2018 11:10:28 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

845600

	registered interest
	date	20/02/2018
	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	Jobseeker's Allowance: Disqualification
	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 job seekers allowance claimants sanctioned for spelling mistakes in their CVs in the last 12 months.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	128572
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/02/2018 answer text <p>Claimants will not be sanctioned for providing a CV containing spelling mistakes.</p><p> </p><p>However, it could be envisaged that, where in order to improve a claimant’s chances in the job market, a Work Coach may agree a requirement with the claimant to amend spelling mistakes on their CV (but would always support them to do so). If the claimant then fails to complete this agreed requirement without good reason they could be sanctioned, but it would be about the failure to deliver on an agreed ask, rather than a claimant’s initial spelling error on their cv. Decision Makers will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities, and any evidence of good reason into account before making a decision.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 23/02/2018 12:48:57 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

845501

	registered interest
	date	20/02/2018
	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	Universal Credit: EEA Nationals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a reduced fee for identification cards for EEA nationals in cases where a benefit claimant needs ID to apply for Universal credit but has no passport or driving license.
	tabling member constituency	Leeds North West
	tabling member printed	Alex Sobel
	uin	128473
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/02/2018 answer text <p>No such assessment is necessary. With the exception of people from the Common Travel Area, an EEA national would have a passport in order to gain entry to the United Kingdom.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 27/02/2018 17:14:34 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4658 label Biography information for Alex Sobel

845395

	registered interest
	date	20/02/2018
	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
	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 report by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, The Dependency Trap—are we fit to face the future, published in January, in particular its proposal that working partners should be able to contribute to the pension funds of non-working partners in order to help tackle the gender pay gap in pensions.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Burt of Solihull
	uin	HL5595
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/03/2018 answer text <p>The report by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation raises issues concerning differences in earnings between genders that cannot be tackled by the pensions system alone. The Government remains committed to minimising the gender pay gap.</p><p> </p><p>Certain choices are available within an individualised UK tax and pensions system; subject to tax rules, households can plan for retirements by using household income to make payments to a personal pension for a non-working spouse.</p><p> </p><p>In terms of pension savings, through automatic enrolment we are helping those who were historically underrepresented in workplace pension saving – including women and lower earners – build up retirement savings for their later life. Since the introduction of automatic enrolment the proportion of women employed full-time in the private sector who did not have a workplace pension has decreased from 65 per cent in 2012 to 31 per cent in 2016. It is also equalising workplace pension participation among eligible men and women. In 2016, 73 per cent of eligible men and women in the private sector were saving into a workplace pension compared with 43 per cent and 40 per cent of eligible men and women respectively in the private sector in 2012.</p><p> </p><p>Our aim is to continue to normalise retirement saving for all groups. The recent review of automatic enrolment sets out our medium term vision for strengthening existing framework of workplace pension saving for lower paid workers (including women) alongside proposals to test interventions for the self-employed.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 06/03/2018 13:36:10 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
	tabling member	1567 label Biography information for Baroness Burt of Solihull

845396

	registered interest
	date	20/02/2018
	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 Pension Age Independent Review
	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 proposal in the Cridland review, published in March 2017, that couples should be able to combine their pension savings.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Burt of Solihull
	uin	HL5596
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/03/2018 answer text <p>John Cridland raised an option related to married couples that appears to work well in Switzerland. However, the report recognised the UK system is different, and there are different challenges, including different delivery challenges. Within an individualised UK tax system, subject to tax rules, households can plan for retirement by making voluntary payments into a personal pension.</p><p> </p><p>Automatic enrolment is part of a wider set of pension reforms designed to ensure that the UK has a pension system that enables individuals, with the help of their employers, to save towards achieving the lifestyle to which they aspire to in retirement. It has been a great success to date with over 9 million employees automatically enrolled into a workplace pension by nearly 1 million employers. It has already reversed the decline in private pension saving seen in the decade prior to its introduction. Additionally, we have seen positive progress for other under-represented groups in pension saving, and a correlated increase in women’s participation since its introduction. The proportion of women employed full-time in the private sector who did not have a workplace pension has decreased from 65 per cent in 2012 to 31 per cent in 2016.</p><p> </p><p>However, we cannot be complacent which is why the Government has set out its vision going forwards to build on the success to date.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 06/03/2018 13:37:56 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
	tabling member	1567 label Biography information for Baroness Burt of Solihull

845397

	registered interest
	date	20/02/2018
	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	Workplace Pensions
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to encourage employers to continue contributing to an individual’s automatic enrolment pension fund during maternity leave and carer's leave.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Burt of Solihull
	uin	HL5597
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/03/2018 answer text <p>Automatic enrolment is helping millions of people save into a workplace pension so that they can look forward to greater security in retirement. So far almost 9.3 million people have been automatically enrolled and more than 1 million employers have met their duties. By 2019/20 an estimated extra £20 billion a year is estimated to go into workplace pensions as a result of our reforms.</p><p> </p><p>Automatic enrolment is focussed on people in paid employment and employers must make contributions into a workplace pension for an eligible worker during any periods of paid absence from work, consistent with the requirements under the Pensions Act 2008. This includes, for example, statutory maternity or paternity leave or such other periods of paid absence specified under an individual’s employment contract.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Workers on paid contractual leave can opt in to workplace pensions if their earnings fall below the threshold and if they do so they are entitled, under the Pensions Act 2008, to an employer contribution provided they have a sufficient level of earnings. Employers may also provide additional contractual entitlement to pension contributions for their workers in these situations.</p><p> </p><p>As part of its role, the Pensions Regulator has made available detailed guidance to employers and their advisers to help employers fulfil their automatic enrolment duties.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 01/03/2018 16:03:41 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
	tabling member	1567 label Biography information for Baroness Burt of Solihull

845399

	registered interest
	date	20/02/2018
	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	Social Security Benefits: Disability
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people are in receipt of working age disability benefits; and what is their estimate of the number of people who will be in receipt of such benefits following the introduction of planned increases to the state pension age from 65 to (1) 66, (2) 67, and (3) 68.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Burt of Solihull
	uin	HL5599
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/03/2018 answer text <p>Providing the complete information requested would exceed the word limit for responses to written parliamentary questions. However, the information requested can be found in the latest Fiscal Sustainability Report. I will place a copy of this report in the House Library.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 06/03/2018 17:18:11 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
	tabling member	1567 label Biography information for Baroness Burt of Solihull

845400

	registered interest
	date	20/02/2018
	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	Social Security Benefits: Disability
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how the number of women in receipt of working age disability benefits has been affected by the rise in the state pension age from 60 to 65 between 2010 and 2018.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Burt of Solihull
	uin	HL5600
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/02/2018 answer text <p>The number of women in receipt of the main working age disability benefits, Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP), has not been affected by the rise in state pension age.</p><p> </p><p>New claims for DLA are currently only available for children under the age of 16 since the introduction of PIP on 8 April 2013. However, before the introduction of PIP, DLA had an upper age limit for making a new claim set at the day before a claimant’s 65<sup>th</sup> birthday. This is also the upper age limit to make a new claim for PIP and will rise in line with increases in state pension age.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 23/02/2018 12:31:48 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
	tabling member	1567 label Biography information for Baroness Burt of Solihull