Tag: Gavin Newlands

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will provide support for women who have been affected financially as a result of changes brought about by the Pension Act 2011.

Justin Tomlinson

The Government will not be revisiting the State Pension age arrangements for women affected by the Pensions Act 1995 and Pensions Act 2011. These women will receive their State Pension either at the same age as men or earlier as we remove current gender timetable inequality.

The equalisation of State Pension age was necessary to meet the UK’s obligations under EU law to eliminate gender inequalities in social security provision. The Pensions Act 1995 contained legislation to equalise women’s State Pension age and, since April 2010, women’s State Pension age has been gradually increasing. Following sharp increases in life expectancy projections, and therefore the increase in the number of people living longer in retirement, this timetable was accelerated by the Pensions Act 2011.

A concession was made prior to the passing of the 2011 Act which reduced the delay that anyone would experience in claiming their State Pension, relative to the previous timetable, to 18 months. This concession benefited almost a quarter of a million women, who would otherwise have experienced delays of up to two years. A similar number of men also benefited from a reduced increase, and the concession was worth around £1 billion in total.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2016-02-04.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much the Government has spent on debt collection activity in each of the last seven years.

Matthew Hancock

This information is not held centrally. Individual departments are responsible for managing their own debt.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will provide a breakdown of the main reasons why applications to the National Enterprise Allowance scheme were turned down in each of the last five years.

Priti Patel

The New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) is a voluntary scheme. Eligible claimants will be referred to one of our contracted NEA providers who will assess their business idea for viability and sustainability. Claimants who are not accepted onto the scheme can be re-referred at a later date.

We do not hold the data on how many people are rejected by our providers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2015-11-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2015 to Question 11080, on Deportation: Appeals, how many of the 426 cases referred to have been heard in court.

James Brokenshire

Such data is not aggregated in national reporting systems, which would mean this question could only be answered through a disproportionately expensive manual case search to collate the data.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average amount foregone by women who will wait longer to receive their state pension was as a result of changes brought about by the Pension Act 2011.

Justin Tomlinson

Information on the average amount foregone by women who will wait longer to receive their state pension as a result of changes brought about by the Pensions Act 2011 is not available.

The impact on total lifetime pension income depends on income level, and whether an individual works up to their new State Pension age. The Pensions Act 2011 Impact Assessment presents modelled impacts using hypothetical examples of single individual male and female high, median and low earners. This analysis focuses on illustrating the impact on income in retirement. It therefore does not take account of gains in working-life income through earnings (or working-age benefits) received in the period up to the new State Pension age that will either wholly or partially replace the income a person would have received from their private and / or State Pensions.

The Pensions Act 2011 Impact Assessment, published in November 2011, is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/181462/pensions-bill-2011-ia-annexa.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2016-02-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the new Enterprise Allowance scheme.

Priti Patel

Latest statistics show that 76,960 new businesses have been set up with the support of the New Enterprise Allowance (NEA).

A cohort study of the initial participants in the scheme showed that 78% of the first 2,960 NEA participants who started to trade remained off benefits for 52 weeks.

In January 2016 we published an evaluation report which showed that business established with the support of NEA had a sustainability rate of 80%, with over 90% of these trading for over 12 months. Around half of the respondents to the survey reported an expansion in their customer base or an increase in turnover. The majority of respondents were planning to expand their business in the future.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on Scottish sport of changes to the funding of BBC Alba.

Mr Edward Vaizey

It is a matter for MG Alba how it distributes funding across it services. The previous government provided two one-off grants to MG ALBA, which we understand was put into developing the drama series Bannan.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2015-11-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people deported under the deport first, appeal later measures have successfully appealed against their deportation; how many of those people have returned to the UK; and of those people that have returned, what the length of time was that each such person spent outside the UK between their deportation and return.

James Brokenshire

Pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2015 to Question 11080, that there had been 13 successful appeals, the additional data requested is not available. Such data is not aggregated in national reporting systems, which would mean these questions could only be answered through a disproportionately expensive manual case search to collate the data.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department’s policy is on the maximum travelling time for applicants to personal independence payment assessments; and what proportion of such assessments have complied with that maximum time in the last 12 months.

Justin Tomlinson

The requirement placed on the providers delivering Personal Independence Payment assessments is that claimants are not expected to travel more than 90 minutes by public transport to attend assessments. We expect them to minimise travel times wherever possible but, in scheduling appointments, they need to balance both keeping journey times down and ensuring claimants are assessed in a reasonable time period. To increase capacity and reduce journey times the providers have been opening new assessment centres across the country.

The information requested about the proportion of such assessments having complied with the maximum time in the last 12 months is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2016-02-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have applied to the National Enterprise Allowance scheme in each of the last five years.

Priti Patel

Claimants who are interested in participating in the New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) are referred by their work coach to a provider so that they can explore the self-employment options. Participation is voluntary.

The take up of the NEA is closely linked to the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, which begun to drop in 2013 – 2014. It is also worth noting that during 2013 the Department ran a high profile marketing campaign to promote the NEA, using posters & leaflets in jobcentres, YouTube videos, Webinars etc. which may also have influenced take up of the scheme in that year.

The table below shows how many starts there were with a business mentor in each financial year.

NEA mentor starts by financial year (1)	Number (2,3)
April 2011 – March 2012	15,170
April 2012 – March 2013	31,880
April 2013 – March 2014	47,800
April 2014 – March 2015	39,830
April 2015 – September 2015 (six months)	18,200

(1) Data Source – DWP LMS opportunities evaluation database October 2015 for all quarters, DWP PRaP database October 2015 for Jan-Sept 2015.

(2) Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.

(3) It is possible that an individual may start to work with a mentor more than once and therefore appear more than once in these figures.