Mel Stride MP: written questions 2024

Written questions

• Pension CreditDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 3 Sept 2024AnsweredUIN 3961More

  Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pensioners receive the State Pension as their only income and are not (a) in receipt of and (b) eligible for Pension Credit.

  Answer: The number of pensioners in receipt of state pension only is too small for robust analysis. Any pensioners in receipt of low amounts of State Pension would likely be eligible for other state support, subject to their individual financial and personal circ...

  Answered 11 Sept 2024

  Original Parliament record
• Pension CreditDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 3 Sept 2024AnsweredUIN 3960More

  Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of pensioners have an annual State Pension income which exceeds the income threshold for eligibility for the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit; and what estimate sh

  Answer: The income threshold for eligibility for the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit is dependent on personal circumstances. Therefore it is not possible to produce a robust estimate of how many pensioners exceed this due to State Pension income.

  Answered 11 Sept 2024

  Original Parliament record
• Winter Fuel PaymentTreasuryTabled 3 Sept 2024AnsweredUIN 3959More

  Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to p.9 of the policy document entitled Fixing the Foundations, published on 29 July 2024, what discussions her Department had with the Office for Budget Responsibility before estimating the savings to

  Answer: The Chancellor’s statement of 29 July made hard choices to reduce immediate spending pressures . It was not a fiscal event and was not accompanied by an economic and fiscal forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The Chancellor commissio...

  Answered 10 Sept 2024

  Original Parliament record
• Winter Fuel PaymentDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 3 Sept 2024AnsweredUIN 3958More

  Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Table 2 of the policy paper published on 29 July 2024 entitled Fixing the foundations: public spending audit 2024-25, whether the savings from targeting Winter Fuel Payments at recipie

  Answer: The savings were estimated in Fixing the Foundations as Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) Winter Fuel Payments (WFP) savings of £1.4bn, for 2024/2025, for Great Britain. These included an assumption about increased take-up of Pension Credit which is in l...

  Answered 9 Sept 2024

  Original Parliament record
• Pension CreditDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 3 Sept 2024AnsweredUIN 3957More

  Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people in receipt of the State Pension were (a) in receipt of and (b) eligible for Pension Credit on 3 September 2024; and if she will make an estimate of the number and

  Answer: Benefit combinations statistics are routinely published and made publicly available via DWP Stat-xplore. Due to the suspension of State Pension statistics, the latest available data covers the period up to May 2023. At May 2023, there were 1,228,563 peopl...

  Answered 12 Sept 2024

  Original Parliament record
• Pension CreditDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 3 Sept 2024AnsweredUIN 3956More

  Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the potential impact of the (a) introduction of means-testing for Winter Fuel Payments and (b) Pension Credit Week of Action campaign on the (i) number of people

  Answer: The Government estimates that linking entitlement to receipt of Pension Credit and other relevant DWP income-related benefits will reduce expenditure by around £1.4 billion in 2024/25 and £1.5 billion in 2025/26, based on the assumption of a 5% increase o...

  Answered 9 Sept 2024

  Original Parliament record
• Household Support FundDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 3 Sept 2024AnsweredUIN 3955More

  Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much and what proportion of each round of the Household Support Fund has been spent on (a) energy support, (b) pensioner households and (c) energy support for pensioner households.

  Answer: There have been five separate iterations of the Household Support Fund (HSF). Since the first iteration was introduced, over £2.5 billion has been allocated to Local Authorities in England to support those most in need through the HSF (October 2021- Septe...

  Answered 9 Sept 2024

  Original Parliament record
• Pension CreditDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 3 Sept 2024AnsweredUIN 3954More

  Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of pensioners were living in (a) relative poverty after housing costs and (b) absolute poverty after housing costs were in receipt of Pension Credit in the latest period for

  Answer: For the latest year 2022/23, 1.9 million pensioners were in relative poverty after housing costs (AHC) in the UK. Of these, 300,000 pensioners were in receipt of Pension Credit, approximately 15%. A household is in relative poverty if its income is less t...

  Answered 18 Sept 2024

  Original Parliament record