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1236621

	registered interest
	date	22/09/2020
	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: 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 had a (a) telephone and (b) digital appointment with the Pension Wise service since the start of the covid-19 outbreak.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	93571
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/09/2020 answer text <p>Between 1 March 2020 and 22 September 2020, the following number of Pension Wise appointments were held:</p><p> </p><ul><li>Total combined complete/incomplete telephone appointments: 53,370</li><ul><li>Fully completed telephone appointments: 46,928</li><li>Incomplete telephone appointments: 6,442</li></ul><li>Digital appointments (self-service): 30,443</li></ul><p> </p><p>An incomplete appointment is where a customer attended an appointment, but it was not completed fully due to a variety of reasons.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 30/09/2020 15:23:31 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1623196

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2023
	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	Employment: Disability
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made on supporting disabled people into work.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	904583
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/04/2023 answer text <p>It was a pleasure in February to visit Crawley Job Centre and meet the Work Coaches with My Honourable Friend.</p><p>He will know we have helped over one million more disabled people into work and our Health and Disability White Paper and the budget support will do so much more.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 24/04/2023 16:06:34 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1696533

	registered interest
	date	12/03/2024
	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	Personal Savings
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help people save for the future.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	902037
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/03/2024 answer text <p>Retirement saving has been transformed with over 11 million employees put into workplace pensions since 2012.</p><p> </p><p>We are committed to the expansion of Automatic Enrolment in the mid-2020s. Our reforms will benefit younger workers and increase overall amounts being saved, with 3m people saving £2bn extra a year.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 18/03/2024 17:06:19 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

381825

	registered interest
	date	16/06/2015
	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	Employment: Disability
	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 trends in the rate of disability employment.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	900463
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/06/2015 answer text <p>Last year saw an increase of 238,000 disabled people in work. The employment rate is now 46.3% - up 2.1% from last year. Our Disability Confident Campaign is ensuring that employers understand the benefits of employing disabled people. And our programmes, like Work Choice and Access to Work, are supporting disabled people into work. We will continue build on this success.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 22/06/2015 16:06:53 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

416364

	registered interest
	date	04/09/2015
	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	Workplace Pensions: Private Sector
	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 auto-enrolment on private sector pension saving.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	8900
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/09/2015 answer text <p /> <p>Over 5.43 million workers have now been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension by their employer, many for the first time. This has reversed the downwards trend seen in workplace pension participation rates since 2003.</p><p> </p><p>So far opt out has been around 10 per cent, which is significantly lower than the original DWP estimate of around 30 per cent. This has seen the programme opt out assumption being adjusted to 15 per cent overall for the lifetime of the programme.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Automatic Enrolment will give around 10 million people the opportunity to save into a workplace pension - we expect to see 8 to 9 million people newly saving or saving more, generating £11 billion a year more in workplace pension saving by 2020.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 14/09/2015 11:35:08 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1233037

	registered interest
	date	09/09/2020
	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 discussions her Department has had with (a) pension regulators, (b) pension providers and (c) HMRC on encouraging victims of pensions scams to report that scam.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	87530
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/09/2020 answer text <p>Through Project Bloom, DWP works with other government departments, regulators, enforcement agencies and the pensions industry to monitor the evolution of scam typology and respond with a collective and coordinated response. Project Bloom is examining the range of measures that all agencies including providers and financial professionals could take to help prevent scams.</p><p> </p><p>DWP consistently works with other organisations to raise awareness of pension scams and encourage reporting, including regular campaigns, from the Financial Conduct Authority and the Pensions Regulator, conducted through the ScamSmart branding. Alongside promoting what to look out for to recognise a pension scam, the ScamSmart campaigns and website encourage people to report when they think they have been scammed. These messages are proving effective, in the most recent campaign prior to Covid-19, June to September 2019 over 222,000 visited the ScamSmart website to find out how to identify a scam scheme and report a scam.</p><p> </p><p>The Government, working with the regulators and the Money and Pension Service communicates with pension savers to alert them to the risk of scams in the current climate. DWP continues to communicate regularly on social media to set out the warning signs of a scam and has made 18 posts referencing Pension Scams and ScamSmart in total across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in the period March to September 2020.</p><p> </p><p>A <a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions" target="_blank">joint statement</a> was issued by The Pension Regulator, Financial Conduct Authority, and Money Advice and Pension Service on 7 April pointing to the actions members should take to help safeguard against scams. Additional guidance was issued to trustees, and providers from both The Financial Conduct Authority and the Pensions Regulator to support them to produce suitable communications during the Covid-19 outbreak.</p><p> </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> </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> </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> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 17/09/2020 15:48:25 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1233035

	registered interest
	date	09/09/2020
	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 discussions her Department has had with HMRC on its investigation of tax rule breaches arising from pension scams.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	87529
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/09/2020 answer text <p>Tax liabilities relating to unauthorised payments and HMRC’s investigation of tax rules arising from pension scams are the responsibility of HMT. DWP will continue to work closely with HMRC to understand their position and how these may impact the Pensions Schemes Bill and savers.</p><p> </p><p>Government continues to work with regulators and industry to protect consumers and find the best ways of preventing pension scams. HMRC and DWP have held regular discussions relating to the enhanced protection measures in the Pension Scheme Bill 2020.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 17/09/2020 10:54:22 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1233033

	registered interest
	date	09/09/2020
	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	Financial Services: Advisory Services
	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 merits of implementing a training programme for pension and finance professionals to ensure they can more readily identify scam risks.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	87528
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/09/2020 answer text <p>The Government is committed to working closely with industry, regulators and pension scheme providers to help identify and prevent scams, it is working with Project Bloom, the Pension Regulator led taskforce, to stop scams and co-ordinate action against offenders.</p><p> </p><p>Through Project Bloom, DWP works with other government departments, regulators, enforcement agencies and the pensions industry to monitor the evolution of scam typology and respond with a collective and coordinated response. Project Bloom is examining the range of measures that all agencies including providers and financial professionals could take to help prevent scams.</p><p> </p><p>DWP will consider with Project Bloom, industry and the regulators the feasibility of how a training programme could be developed. This would build on training individual providers already provide for their people.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 17/09/2020 15:52:40 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1233031

	registered interest
	date	09/09/2020
	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 people have booked a Pension Wise guidance session since the start of the covid-19 outbreak.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	87527
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/09/2020 answer text <p>Between March 1<sup>st</sup> and September 9<sup>th</sup> 2020, the number of Pension Wise guidance sessions booked totalled 64,221.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 16/09/2020 12:31:32 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1233030

	registered interest
	date	09/09/2020
	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 contacted Action Fraud on potential pension scams since the covid-19 outbreak.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	87526
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/09/2020 answer text <p>The Government continues to work with Regulators and the Police to prevent scams and this has continued during Covid-19. 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.</p><p> </p><p>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. Regulators, Police and Action Fraud 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> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 17/09/2020 11:08:01 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith