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1126921

	registered interest
	date	15/05/2019
	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: British Nationals Abroad
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimates he has made of the potential cost to the public purse of uprating state pensions for pensioners who live overseas.
	tabling member constituency	Romford
	tabling member printed	Andrew Rosindell
	uin	254754
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2019 answer text <p><del class="ministerial">All political parties since WW2 have</del> <ins class="ministerial">Successive post-war Governments have followed</ins> the same policy. Up-rating UK State Pensions for recipients who are overseas residents is longstanding; state Pensions are payable worldwide and are up-rated where there is a legal requirement to do so.</p><p> </p><p>The policy on the up-rating of UK State Pensions paid to recipients living outside the UK has been in place for over 70 years. The UK State Pension is payable worldwide without regard to nationality. Entitlement to the UK State Pension is based on the national insurance contributions on a person’s national insurance record. The annual index-linked increases to UK State Pensions are paid to recipients overseas only where there is a legal requirement to do so, for example in EEA countries or in countries where there is a reciprocal agreement in place that provides for the up-rating of the UK State Pension. The Government has no plans to change the policy <ins class="ministerial">upheld by all previous Governments, Labour, Coalition and Conservative for the past 70 years.</ins> <del class="ministerial">of all Governments, Labour, Coalition or Conservative since WW2.</del></p><p> </p><p>The estimated costs of up-rating state pensions overseas where they are currently not up-rated are available at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/estimated-costs-of-uprating-state-pension-in-frozen-rate-countries" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/estimated-costs-of-uprating-state-pension-in-frozen-rate-countries</a></p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 23/05/2019 16:41:54 question first ministerially corrected 20/06/2019 15:16:55 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 119892 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	1447 label Biography information for Andrew Rosindell

1131301

	registered interest
	date	11/06/2019
	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 Credit
	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 she has made of the number of additional claims that will be made for pension credit following the limiting of free TV licences to people aged over 75 claiming that benefit.
	tabling member constituency	Cardiff West
	tabling member printed	Kevin Brennan
	uin	263077
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/06/2019 answer text <p>The BBC made its announcement about future eligibility of free TV licences on Monday 10 June. It is too early for an assessment of the potential impact on additional Pension Credit claims to be made. Official statistics on the take-up of income related benefits, including pension credit at general Great Britain level can be found in the ‘Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up in 2016 to 2017’ publication. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2016-to-2017" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2016-to-2017</a></p><p>The Government is committed to ensuring that older people receive the support they are entitled to and the DWP targets activity on engaging with people who may be eligible to benefits at pivotal stages, such as when they claim State Pension or report a change in their circumstances. The DWP uses a wide range of channels to communicate information about benefits to potential customers; including information on <a href="https://gov.uk/" target="_blank">https://gov.uk/</a> , in leaflets and by telephone. DWP staff in Pension Centres and Jobcentres including visiting officers are able to provide help and advice about entitlement to benefits, as are staff in Local Authorities who administer Housing Benefit.</p><p>Potential customers can use the Pension Credit <a href="https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator</a> to check if they are likely to be eligible and get an estimate of what they may receive. People wishing to claim Pension Credit can do so by calling 0800 99 1234.</p><p>One of the best ways to reach eligible customers is through trusted stakeholder working in the community and we have developed the Pension Credit toolkit, as an on-line tool for agencies and welfare rights organisations to use in order to encourage Pension Credit take-up. It can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit</a></p><p>The toolkit contains resources for anyone working with pensioners and includes guides to Pension Credit. It also contains publicity material and guidance designed to help older people understand how they could get Pension Credit and help organisations support someone applying for Pension Credit as well as ideas for encouraging take-up. The toolkit also provides links to information about disability and carers benefits.</p><p>Most recently we have provided to relevant organisations a fact sheet about Pension Credit and the recent changes for mixed age couples to ensure that accurate information is available in the places where people are most likely to seek information.</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 25/06/2019 13:34:48 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 123349 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	1400 label Biography information for Kevin Brennan

1133309

	registered interest
	date	19/06/2019
	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 the cost to the public purse was of providing free television licences to people over the age of 75 for qualifying residents in Norwich South constituency in (a) 2017-18 and (b) 2018-19.
	tabling member constituency	Norwich South
	tabling member printed	Clive Lewis
	uin	266801
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/06/2019 answer text <p>In the 2015 funding settlement, the Government agreed with the BBC that responsibility for the concession will transfer to the BBC in June 2020.</p><p>The government and the BBC agreed this is a fair deal for the BBC - in return we closed the iPlayer loophole and committed to increase the licence fee in line with inflation. And to help with financial planning, we agreed to provide phased transitional funding over 2 years to gradually introduce the cost to the BBC.</p><p>This reform was subject to public discussion and debated extensively during the passage of the Digital Economy Act 2017 through Parliament.</p><p>On 10 June 2019, the BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/reports/consultation/age-related-tv-licence-policy" target="_blank">announced</a> that the current scheme will end. From 1 June 2020, a free TV licence will only be available to a household with someone aged over 75 who receives Pension Credit.</p><p>The table below provides estimates of the costs for 2017/18 of providing free TV licences to people aged 75 years and over in the geographical areas requested, in nominal prices. The figures for 2018/19 will be available in September.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p><strong>Expenditure (£m) (Nominal)</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong> </strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2017-18</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Norwich South constituency</strong></p></td><td><p>£0.96</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p /><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 25/06/2019 17:06:01 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 124931 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4500 label Biography information for Clive Lewis

1133313

	registered interest
	date	19/06/2019
	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 the cost to the public purse was of providing free television licences to people over the age of 75 for qualifying residents in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency and (b) Staffordshire local authority area in (i) 2017-18 and (ii) 2018-19.
	tabling member constituency	Newcastle-under-Lyme
	tabling member printed	Paul Farrelly
	uin	266802
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/06/2019 answer text <p>In the 2015 funding settlement, the Government agreed with the BBC that responsibility for the concession will transfer to the BBC in June 2020.</p><p>The government and the BBC agreed this is a fair deal for the BBC - in return we closed the iPlayer loophole and committed to increase the licence fee in line with inflation. And to help with financial planning, we agreed to provide phased transitional funding over 2 years to gradually introduce the cost to the BBC.</p><p>This reform was subject to public discussion and debated extensively during the passage of the Digital Economy Act 2017 through Parliament.</p><p>On 10 June 2019, the BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/reports/consultation/age-related-tv-licence-policy" target="_blank">announced</a> that the current scheme will end. From 1 June 2020, a free TV licence will only be available to a household with someone aged over 75 who receives Pension Credit.</p><p>The table below provides estimates of the costs for 2017/18 of providing free TV licences to people aged 75 and over in the geographical areas requested, in nominal prices. The figures for 2018/19 will be available in September.</p><p /><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p><strong>Expenditure (£m) (Nominal)</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong> </strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2017-18</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency</strong></p></td><td><p>£0.98</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Staffordshire local authority area</strong></p></td><td><p>£9.66</p></td></tr></tbody></table> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 25/06/2019 17:02:17 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 124930 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	1436 label Biography information for Paul Farrelly

1133317

	registered interest
	date	19/06/2019
	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 the cost to the public purse was of providing free television licences to people over the age of 75 for qualifying residents in (a) the Motherwell and Wishaw constituency and (b) North Lanarkshire local authority area in (i) 2017-18 and (ii) 2018-19.
	tabling member constituency	Motherwell and Wishaw
	tabling member printed	Marion Fellows
	uin	266806
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/06/2019 answer text <p>In the 2015 funding settlement, the Government agreed with the BBC that responsibility for the concession will transfer to the BBC in June 2020.</p><p>The government and the BBC agreed this is a fair deal for the BBC - in return we closed the iPlayer loophole and committed to increase the licence fee in line with inflation. And to help with financial planning, we agreed to provide phased transitional funding over 2 years to gradually introduce the cost to the BBC.</p><p>This reform was subject to public discussion and debated extensively during the passage of the Digital Economy Act 2017 through Parliament.</p><p>On 10 June 2019, the BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/reports/consultation/age-related-tv-licence-policy" target="_blank">announced</a> that the current scheme will end. From 1 June 2020, a free TV licence will only be available to a household with someone aged over 75 who receives Pension Credit.</p><p>The table below provides estimates of the costs for 2017/18 of providing free TV licences to people aged 75 and over in the geographical areas requested, in nominal prices. The figures for 2018/19 will be available in September.</p><p /><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p><strong>Expenditure (£m) (Nominal)</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong> </strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2017-18</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>(a) Motherwell and Wishaw constituency</strong></p></td><td><p>£0.85</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>(b) North Lanarkshire local authority area</strong></p></td><td><p>£2.95</p></td></tr></tbody></table> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 25/06/2019 17:09:22 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 124929 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4440 label Biography information for Marion Fellows

1135215

	registered interest
	date	27/06/2019
	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 Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much funding the Government allocated to charities that work with older people to support them in promoting the take-up of pension credit in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17 and (c) 2017-18.
	tabling member constituency	Portsmouth South
	tabling member printed	Stephen Morgan
	uin	270400
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/07/2019 answer text <p>The Government is committed to ensuring that older people receive the support they are entitled to. We work with a wide range of stakeholders, including charities to ensure that accurate information about benefits including Pension Credit is available in the places where people are most likely to go to seek information.</p><p> </p><p>The DWP knows that one of the best ways to reach eligible customers is through trusted stakeholder organisations working in the community and that is why we have developed and resourced the Pension Credit toolkit, as an on-line tool for agencies and welfare rights organisations to use in order to encourage Pension Credit take-up. It can be found at:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit</a></p><p> </p><p>The toolkit contains resources for anyone working with pensioners and includes guides to Pension Credit. It also contains publicity material and guidance designed to help older people understand how they could get Pension Credit and help organisations support someone applying for Pension Credit as well as ideas for encouraging take-up. The toolkit also provides links to information about disability and carers benefits.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Stakeholders and potential customers alike can use the Pension Credit calculator at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator</a> to check if they are likely to be eligible and get an estimate of what they may receive.</p><p> </p><p>Most recently we have provided to relevant stakeholders a fact sheet about Pension Credit and the changes introduced on 15 May for mixed age couples to ensure they are able to communicate the most up-to-date information to potential claimants.</p><p> </p><p>DWP staff in Pension Centres and Jobcentres including visiting officers are able to provide help and advice about entitlement to benefits, as are staff in Local Authorities who administer Housing Benefit.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 03/07/2019 14:07:54 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 126660 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4653 label Biography information for Stephen Morgan

1135298

	registered interest
	date	27/06/2019
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether it is her Department's policy that pension schemes can already invest in funds with performance fees.
	tabling member constituency	Wallasey
	tabling member printed	Ms Angela Eagle
	uin	270297
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/07/2019 answer text <p>Private Pension schemes which are not used for automatic enrolment are free to invest in funds with performance fees.</p><p> </p><p>To protect savers who are automatically enrolled into a pension scheme and make no choice of investment fund, the Government introduced a charge cap on 6 April 2015. Performance fees have always been subject to the charge cap. However, the way that schemes used for automatic enrolment verify compliance with the charge cap limits the use of most performance fees.</p><p> </p><p>Earlier this year DWP consulted on proposals to extend the ways that pension schemes verify compliance with the charge cap to accommodate performance fees (<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/defined-contribution-pensions-investments-and-consolidation" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/defined-contribution-pensions-investments-and-consolidation</a>), as long as members invested over the whole year were not charged more than 0.75% of their funds under management or an equivalent combination charge.</p><p> </p><p>Our consultation met with broad support. We are considering next steps, but we do not intend to remove performance fees – in any form – from the automatic enrolment charge cap.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 03/07/2019 14:05:10 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 126653 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1138961

	registered interest
	date	15/07/2019
	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 Credit: Telephone 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 calls were made to the pension credit claim line in each of the last 12 months; and if she will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	Kingston and Surbiton
	tabling member printed	Sir Edward Davey
	uin	277103
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/07/2019 answer text <p>Calls to Pension Credit Claim Line in each of the last 12 months are outlined in the table below:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Month</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>No. of Calls</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>July 18</p></td><td><p>49168</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>August 18</p></td><td><p>36885</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>September 18</p></td><td><p>38635</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>October 18</p></td><td><p>54165</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>November 18</p></td><td><p>39811</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>December 18</p></td><td><p>27092</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>January 19</p></td><td><p>45258</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>February 19</p></td><td><p>39569</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>March 19</p></td><td><p>42377</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>April 19</p></td><td><p>46210</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>May 19</p></td><td><p>43720</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>June 19</p></td><td><p>60060</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Total</strong></p></td><td><p>522950</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p /><p>DWP officials continue to monitor the numbers of enquiries and claims to Pension Credit in order to ensure that levels of service to the public can be maintained and that we are able to respond flexibly and quickly to changes in demands on services including any increase in Pension Credit take-up.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 22/07/2019 12:20:53 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 129784 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	188 label Biography information for Ed Davey

1145570

	registered interest
	date	24/09/2019
	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: Fraud
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the legal basis is for her Department to ask claimants who are victims of third-party universal credit fraud to attend an interview under caution at a Jobcentre rather than provide a witness statement.
	tabling member constituency	High Peak
	tabling member printed	Ruth George
	uin	290461
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/10/2019 answer text <p>The new process for advances and identification introduced on the 18 September 2019 mean that the level of UC advances fraud will be mitigated. Where an individual is a victim of fraud and received no money personally, no claim will be made against them. However, it is often not possible to ascertain the facts without an Interview Under Caution. The powers for an Interview Under Caution are under the Social Security Administration Act 1992, Part VI, governs this process and has been followed by successive governments of different political persuasions.</p><p> </p><p>DWP will ask, and allow the individual to have the opportunity to respond to any evidence in a voluntary Interview Under Caution.</p><p> </p><p>DWP follows the guidance laid down in the Criminal Procedures and Investigations Act 1996 and the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (Code C 2014) to afford the claimant all appropriate protection in law.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 08/10/2019 14:20:53 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 136305 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4662 label Biography information for Ruth George

1145571

	registered interest
	date	24/09/2019
	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: Fraud
	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 oral contribution of the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work of 8 July 2019, Official Report, Column 321, if she will provide details of the successful third-party universal credit fraud prosecution.
	tabling member constituency	High Peak
	tabling member printed	Ruth George
	uin	290462
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/10/2019 answer text <p>The Department is committed to the prevention, detection and investigation of benefit fraud. We take this issue very seriously and will continue to use appropriate penalties to deter this fraudulent behaviour.</p><p> </p><p>Turning to the specific case you reference, the defendant was convicted at a Magistrates court on 14 February 2019 for fraudulently obtaining £4,152.86 in Universal Credit Advances.</p><p> </p><p>This prosecution identified that the suspect had hijacked the identities of close family members in order to make fraudulent applications to Universal Credit, via the online application process, enabling fraudulent payments of Universal Credit and Universal Credit Advances.</p><p> </p><p>It was established that the defendant had also impersonated a friend and changed the payment destination of his friend’s Universal Credit payments.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 01/10/2019 15:13:01 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman previous answer version 136329 answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4662 label Biography information for Ruth George