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1436316

	registered interest
	date	28/02/2022
	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 how many Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) pension products are available for automatic enrolment pensions; what assessment they have made of the impact of financial services regulations on the number of ESG pension products available for automatic enrolment pensions; and what steps they are taking to increase the number of ESG pension products available for automatic enrolment purposes.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	HL6479
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/03/2022 answer text <p>The department has introduced ESG-related legislation, including regulations aligned with the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), requiring trustees to consider, assess and report on the financial risks of climate change within their portfolios.</p><p> </p><p>These measures go beyond merely reporting a climate policy and how it is implemented. They require trustees to put in place climate-related governance and risk management, to assess the impact of climate change on their investment strategy, to conduct scenario analysis, to set targets.</p><p> </p><p>This means that automatic enrolment schemes will be encouraged to consider climate-related risks and opportunities, and this is likely to influence their choice of products in their portfolio. The Government thinks that ESG factors and their impact should be taken into consideration where financially material, but the process of investing in individual products is down to the market and trustees working within their fiduciary duty.</p><p> </p><p>I recognise the risk of ‘greenwashing’, where investors can be misled on the quality of a product described as being an ESG product and this must be tackled. To aid trustees in their decisions, the department participates in an advisory group which supports the Financial Conduct Authority in developing their proposed requirements that certain investment products display a label reflecting their sustainability characteristics.</p><p> </p><p>Recent research carried out by Corporate Advisor in their ‘ESG in DC Pensions’ report found that 19 out of 21 pension providers surveyed deploy ESG tilts or screening overlays on their default funds excluding specific companies or sectors with poor ESG ratings<sup><sup>[1]</sup></sup>. The report found that three years ago, just five master trust defaults took this approach, suggesting that schemes are increasingly turning to ESG-related products. I believe the steps the department has taken to put in place the regulatory framework for consideration of ESG factors will have contributed to the uptake here.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 11/03/2022 14:38:48 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1245644

	registered interest
	date	21/10/2020
	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	Ventilation: Coronavirus
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Greenhalgh on 20 October (HL8966), what guidance they will provide on the operation and adaptation of ventilation provision in existing buildings, including (1) schools, (2) fitness facilities, and (3) retail premises and offices, in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	HL9402
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/11/2020 answer text <p>The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has produced the following website-based advice on air conditioning and ventilation in the workplace for existing buildings during the pandemic</p><p><a href="https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/equipment-and-machinery/air-conditioning-and-ventilation.htm" target="_blank">https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/equipment-and-machinery/air-conditioning-and-ventilation.htm</a></p><p> </p><p>HSE is carrying out a review of this guidance in light of SAGE’s (the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) consideration of evidence on aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2. If required as a result of this review HSE will update the advice provided on their website. This will also be communicated to stakeholders across all sectors via HSE’s e-bulletin subscription service.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 04/11/2020 17:43:47 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1276932

	registered interest
	date	14/01/2021
	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	Ventilation: Coronavirus
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Stedman-Scott on 4 November 2020 (HL9402), and the identification of new variants of COVID-19, what plans they have to update their guidance for the ventilation of (1) existing, and (2) new, buildings.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	HL12137
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2021 answer text <p>The Health and Safety Executive’s guidance outlines control measures that should protect against virus transmission and these remain unchanged. Ensuring good ventilation, staying at home, working from home where you can, social distancing, hand washing and cleaning surfaces are all measures that will reduce infection risk.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 28/01/2021 15:24:19 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1386795

	registered interest
	date	09/12/2021
	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: Self-employed
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the (1) number, and (2) percentage, of Universal Credit recipients whose payments are affected by the minimum income floor for self-employed people.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	HL4822
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/12/2021 answer text <p>In September 2021, the latest month for which there is available data, there were around 4,000 gainfully self-employed Universal Credit (UC) recipients not in a start-up period and earning below the minimum income floor. This is 1% of all self-employed UC recipients, and 0.1% of all UC claimants.</p><p> </p><p>This number will likely change significantly over the coming year as we gradually reintroduce our pre-pandemic processes for the self-employed, many of whom claimed while the minimum income floor was suspend</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 22/12/2021 10:44:18 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1195343

	registered interest
	date	12/05/2020
	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	Universal Credit: Housing
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how many applicants for the housing component of universal credit who have applied since 1 March will be subject to the spare room subsidy; and what percentage this is of the total applicants for the housing component since that date.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	HL4346
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/05/2020 answer text <p>Data for claimants on Universal Credit with a Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy deduction is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 15/05/2020 13:55:23 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1690590

	registered interest
	date	20/02/2024
	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	Universal Credit: Employment
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the requirement under the Universal Credit and Jobseeker’s Allowance (Work Search and Work Availability Requirements - limitations) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 that jobseekers claiming Universal Credit must widen their search beyond their preferred sector after four weeks, including the impact on (1) the average salary of former claimants, (2) the percentage of claimants who remain in jobs sixth months and a year after initial employment, (3) the percentage of claimants who subsequently go on to claim sickness benefits, and (4) the percentage of claimants who are sanctioned for not taking a job.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	HL2609
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2024 answer text <p>We have not carried out an assessment of the change to the Permitted Period since it was introduced. The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p> answering member printed Viscount Younger of Leckie question first answered 05/03/2024 12:32:25 answering member 4169 label Biography information for Viscount Younger of Leckie
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1487673

	registered interest
	date	08/07/2022
	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	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of recipients of universal credit discouraged from taking employment by the low level of net financial benefit from being employed due to associated costs, such as transport and childcare, known as the "benefit trap".
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	HL1592
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/07/2022 answer text <p>No such assessment has been undertaken.</p><p> </p><p>UC recipients in work now benefit from a reduction in the UC taper rate from 63% to 55%, and for those eligible customers an increase in the work allowance by £500 per year meaning that working households will be able to keep more of what they earn and strengthening incentives to move into and progress in work.</p><p> </p><p>The National Living Wage has risen from £8.91 to £9.50 an hour from 1 April. That means a pay rise for millions of the country’s lowest paid workers – worth an increase of over £1,000 to the annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National Living Wage.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is aware that for some UC claimants’ childcare costs presents challenges to entering employment. To support parents to become financially resilient by moving into work and progressing in work, eligible UC claimants can claim back up to 85% of their registered childcare costs each month regardless of the number of hours they work, compared to 70% in Tax Credits. This is up to the maximum amount of £646.35 per month for one child and £1,108.04 per month for two or more children. For families with two children, this could be worth over £13,000 a year.</p><p> </p><p>This support is available to all lone parents and couples, regardless of the number of hours they work. For couples, both parents need to be in paid work to be eligible unless one of the allowable exceptions is met.</p><p> </p><p>The UC childcare policy aligns with the wider government childcare offer in England and there are similar funded early learning offers in devolved nations. The Free Childcare offer provides 15 hours a week of free childcare in England for all 3- and 4-year old’s and disadvantaged 2 year old’s, doubling for working parents of 3 and 4 year old’s to 30 hours a week.</p><p> </p><p>The UC childcare element can be used to top up a claimant’s eligible free childcare hours if more hours are worked and childcare required. This offer means that for some claimants’ childcare costs should not present any barriers to entering work.</p><p> </p><p>UC claimants who need help with upfront childcare costs to enter employment or significantly increase their working hours can apply for help from the Flexible Support Fund (FSF). This is a non-repayable payment that will pay their initial childcare costs directly to the provider up to the first salary received.</p><p> </p><p>In order to achieve our long-term goals of driving up productivity and levelling up, we are supporting people in work to ensure they have the right skills and opportunities to progress out of low pay. Through providing right infrastructure we will support an ambitious and productive workforce suited to meet the UK’s future demand.</p><p> </p><p>Through a staged rollout from April 2022 onwards, 2.1m low paid Universal Credit claimants will be eligible for support to progress into higher paid work. This will be provided by work coaches and focus on career progression advice, such as considering skills gaps, identifying training opportunities, or looking for opportunities for the claimant to progress in their current role or in a new role. Jobcentres will be supported in this new role by a network of 37 Progression Champions across Great Britain who will spearhead the scheme. They will work with partners to address local barriers that limit progression, such as transport and childcare.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 22/07/2022 10:09:39 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1453811

	registered interest
	date	23/03/2022
	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: Yemen
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people in Yemen entitled to a UK state pension are not receiving payments.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	HL7255
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/04/2022 answer text <p>We estimate that around 1,170 people in Yemen who are entitled to a UK State Pension are not receiving payments.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Source:</strong> DWP internal management information, based on clerical estimates as at 23 March 2022.</p><p><strong>Note:</strong> This management information has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but has been provided here in the interests of transparency.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 06/04/2022 11:34:55 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1657659

	registered interest
	date	04/09/2023
	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	State Retirement Pensions: Uprating
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Department for Work and Pension's Estimated costs of uprating State Pension in frozen rate countries: 2024 to 2028, published on 19 July, whether they can publish the background workings to the estimated costs of uprating the State Pension in frozen rate countries.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	HL9748
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/09/2023 answer text <p>The methodology is relatively straight forward and is contained within the publication but quoted below for ease:</p>Estimates of projected costs<p>1. The estimate is based on the latest available data (March 2022) from the 5% extract of DWP’s State Pension administrative data, the Quarterly Statistical Enquiry (QSE).</p><p>2. The QSE is used to estimate the volume of individuals in frozen rate countries and their State Pension amounts.</p><p>3. The State Pension amount, for all current and future recipients, is uprated (using the relevant indices) to the level they would have been if they had never been frozen.</p><p>4. To estimate the costs for subsequent financial years we make adjustments to the underlying caseload and associated costs by:</p><ul><li>applying mortality rates to existing cases, based on age and gender;</li><li>adding forecasts of future State Pension claims, which are based on historical trends and expected changes in the population, and are adjusted for mortality; and</li><li>uprating State Pension amounts using economic assumptions from the Office for Budget Responsibility at Spring Budget 2023.</li></ul><p>5. The total cost for a given financial year is the difference between the uprated State Pension amounts and the frozen State Pension amounts.</p><p>As with all estimates of projected costs, there is a degree of uncertainty, however where possible we have taken steps to try to minimise any significant measurement error.</p><p>Links for the relevant data sources publicly available are:</p><p>- OBR economic assumption for the relevant uprating indices <a href="https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/Long_term_economic-determinants_March_2023_EFO-2.xlsx&amp;wdOrigin=BROWSELINK" target="_blank">here</a></p><p>- Mortality projections <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/datasets/mortalityratesqxprincipalprojectionenglandandwales" target="_blank">here</a></p><p>- Benefit expenditure and caseload tables (table State_Pension) <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-2023" target="_blank">here</a></p><p>- Stat-Xplore SP outturn data from Nov 20 <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/jsf/tableView/tableView.xhtml" target="_blank">here</a></p> answering member printed Viscount Younger of Leckie question first answered 14/09/2023 12:44:56 answering member 4169 label Biography information for Viscount Younger of Leckie
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1657660

	registered interest
	date	04/09/2023
	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	State Retirement Pensions: Uprating
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Department for Work and Pension's Estimated costs of uprating State Pension in frozen rate countries: 2024 to 2028, published on 19 July, whether there is any precedent where, when pensions were once frozen but started being uprated as a result of an international agreement, the pensions concerned were raised to the level they would have been had they never been frozen.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	HL9749
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/09/2023 answer text <p>There is no standard model for international agreements on social security, which are agreed on a case-by-case basis between countries or groups of countries. The UK's international agreements on social security which include State Pension provisions are included here:</p><p><a href="https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.listResults?p_lang=en&amp;p_country=GBR&amp;p_count=3017&amp;p_classification=23.01&amp;p_classcount=160" target="_blank">https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.listResults?p_lang=en&amp;p_country=GBR&amp;p_count=3017&amp;p_classification=23.01&amp;p_classcount=160</a></p> answering member printed Viscount Younger of Leckie question first answered 14/09/2023 13:26:40 answering member 4169 label Biography information for Viscount Younger of Leckie
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle