House of Commons

Wednesday 22 November 2017 Meeting starts at 11.30am

AGENDA

Oral questions: Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (including Topical Questions)

Prime Minister's Question Time

(12:30 approx.) Financial Statement: Budget Statement 

Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)

Adjournment: Future of guards on Merseyrail trains 

Dan Carden MP (Liverpool, Walton, Labour)

ABC Comment: Who is spreadsheet Phil? According to the Conservative Party:

PHILIP HAMMOND

MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR RUNNYMEDE AND WEYBRIDGE

Work and Pensions Committee

Wednesday 22 November 2017 Meeting starts at 9.30am

Subject: PIP and ESA assessments

Witnesses: Yolanda Barker, PIP applicant, Amanda Browning, PIP and ESA applicant, Denise Martin, PIP and ESA applicant, and Natalie McMinn, PIP and ESA applicant

Witnesses: David Bryceland, Welfare Advisor, Oxfordshire Mind, Gary Edwards, Welfare Advisor, Southampton Advice and Representation Centre, Kayleigh Nor-Val, Welfare Advisor, Citizens Advice, and Martin Richards, Welfare Advisor, Involve Northwest.

Pension Tracing Service tops one million searches as people claim forgotten savings

New figures show that the Government’s Pensions Tracing Service has now been used more than a million times, - helping people across the country track down their lost or forgotten pension pots.

Launched by the Department for Work and Pensions in May 2016, the Pensions Tracing Service is a free and comprehensive online database listing more than 320,000 pension scheme administrators. 

It’s simple to use – just type in the name of your former employers, and you’ll automatically see the contact details for any listed workplace pension schemes you may have paid into.

When the service was launched, experts estimated unclaimed UK pension savings were worth £400 million. With people having 11 jobs on average over the course of their working lives, it’s easy to lose track.

Guy Opperman, Minister for Pensions and Financial Inclusion, said:

“Keeping track of pensions savings over your career can be difficult, but with millions of pounds in unclaimed pots waiting to be reunited with their rightful owner, I’d encourage everyone to get in touch with the Pension Tracing Service today.

 “After all, every pound traced is another pound towards a more secure retirement.”

For help on tracking down lost pension pots, contact the Pension Tracing Service today by visiting https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details for a simple, step-by-step process or calling 0345 6002 537, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm (+44 (0)191 215 4491 from outside the UK; 0345 3000 169 by textphone) 

Or click here:

A new tax portal called TAXEDU launches today.

It’s “fun and colorful” according to a Commission spokesperson. The platform, developed jointly with the European Parliament,

It is designed to teach students more about tax.

Please click below to visit.

Brexit has already cost workers in the UK the equivalent of a week’s wages due to rising inflation, according to new research – with Scotland amongst the hardest hit. The report, conducted by researchers at the London School of Economics, found that the impact of Brexit-driven inflation is equivalent to a £448 pay cut for an average worker – while residents in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have been worst effected. The damning analysis comes as the UK government claimed, in response to SNP calls for transparency, that releasing analysis on the impact of Brexit on food prices may weaken the Government’s hands in negotiations.

Image: London School of Economics

We made a trip to RAF Bentwaters, Sunday.

RAF Bentwaters is in Suffolk near to the town of Woodbridge. It opened in 1944 and closed in 1993. It was the home of the United States Air force's 81st Tactical Fighter Wing. The base at its peak used to pour a million pounds a week into the local economy. The Bentwaters Cold War Museum is open, largly during the summer months. 

The Rendlesham Forest incident refers to three days in December 1980 where numerous unidentified, triangle-shaped objects were spotted hurtling through the sky near Rendlesham, Suffolk. They were seen close to the RAF Woodbridge, which was then being used by the US Airforce. There is a walk through the forest known as the UFO trail. Rendlesham Forest is a 1,500-hectare mixed woodland in Suffolk owned by the Forestry Commission with recreation facilities for walkers, cyclists and campers. A fascinating but scary place. Not so much because of the likelihood of a close encounter with a UFO but as a reminder of the ever-present danger of nuclear weapons. 

If you get a chance we suggest you might pay a visit. The base is now home to the film industry and it creating new opportunies for jobs of a more peaceful kind.

You read more about The Rendlesham Forest incident here:

Businesses in the “gig economy” are exploiting loopholes in employment law to the disadvantage of workers, according to a group of cross-party MPs.
 
In a draft bill, two Commons committees suggest companies should be fined if they falsely classify workers and deny them benefits such as holiday pay and sick pay.
 
The proposed legislation comes from the work and pensions committee and the business, energy and industrial strategy committee. It seeks to put pressure on the Government to respond to Matthew Taylor’s report on the modern job market which was published earlier this year.
 
Labour’s Rachel Reeves, who chairs the business committee, said “companies should pay higher wages when they are asking people to work extra hours or zero-hours contracts”.
 
A spokesman for the Government said it recognises the “labour market is not working for everyone”.
 
Gig economy businesses such as Uber and Deliveroo argue their workers are self-employed, although Uber has lost several legal cases over the issue. 

Image: Deliveroo has been subject to a legal challenge. 

Tens of thousands of disability and sickness benefit claimants may been underpaid by the DWP and it could cost up to £500million to correct the blunder.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) confirmed errors in payment of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) that could affect 75,000 people who transferred to it from incapacity benefits.

The errors affected people who applied for ESA between 2011/12 and 2014/15 and were identified by DWP late last year, according to BBC News, which first uncovered the error.

The department has contacted about 1000 of the people who could be affected so far, according to the BBC, and has begun making repayments.

Debbie Abrahams, shadow work and pensions secretary, said: "This is yet another example of the total failure of this Government to provide people with the support they need.

"From the chaotic introduction of Universal Credit to the quiet pushing back of the state pension age of 1950s women, it's been one disaster after another from the Department of Work and Pensions.

"The Government must act immediately to provide the support people are entitled to and apologise to all the people who have struggled to heat their homes and put food on their table."

A DWP spokesman said: "We're aware of this issue and are currently reviewing the historical benefit payments of claimants.

"We've already contacted some of the people affected and are making repayments.

"Anyone potentially affected will be contacted by the department."

The revelation comes with the Government under pressure to reform Universal Credit, with critics complaining that some claimants are left with waits of six weeks or more for payments, which they say is pushing them into debt and rent arrears.

Plaid Cymru’s Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Public Health and Social Services Dr Dai Lloyd has warned the Labour government in Wales not to repeat the scandal of social care cuts in England after a new analysis of data showed that cuts to social care in England have contributed to more than 22,000 deaths per year.