Department for Work and Pensions Five Year Strategy

Department for Work and Pensions Five Year Strategy
Author: Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2005
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780101644723

The welfare state of the 20th century was designed to provide support from the cradle to the grave, but the changing demographic profile of Britain - longer life-spans mean that by 2007 the number of people over state pension age will exceed the number of children - presents a challenge to such a system of support. This plan sets out the Government's strategy of aiming for an 80 per cent employment rate as the best means of keeping people out of poverty, and allowing saving for a secure retirement. Such an aspiration requires the movement into work of a proportion of those people traditionally seen as outside the labour market and with complex barriers preventing entry into that market. Supporting these inactive people into employment will require carefully tailored support. The strategy outlines the approach in three major areas: (1) supporting children and families, including helping lone parents into gainful work; (2) helping those on incapacity benefits to return to work; (3) breaking down barriers to employment faced by disabled people, older workers and ethnic minorities.

Department for Work and Pensions

Department for Work and Pensions
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 38
Release: 2010-03-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780215544797

This report examines the action the Department for Work and Pensions is taking to tackle overpayment and stem the rising trend in benefit debt; improve its knowledge of its client base; and set realistic targets to improve debt collection and improve write-off. The Department has increased cash recoveries from £180 million in 2005-06 to £281 million in 2008-09. However, yet again, evidence proves that the Department needs to significantly improve how it makes benefit payments, it adds. The total amount of money owed to the Department as the result of benefit overpayments is now £1.85 billion and is rising as recoveries are not keeping pace with the increase in referrals. Helping customers avoid getting into debt is important for both the Department and its customers in managing their finances, and the increasing total level of debt reflects the difficulty of recovering money once overpayments have occurred. Overpayments arising from Income Support accounted for over 70 per cent of all debts at 31 March 2008. It is critical that the Department improves its debt prevention procedures and intervenes more directly to check that the circumstances of customers have not changed. In 2007-08, some £9.3 million of small overpayments below £65 were written off because the Department considered them too small to justify the cost of recovery action. But the Department does not distinguish between different types of debtor or different recovery routes in assessing whether the costs of recovery are likely to outweigh the benefits.

Department for Work and Pensions

Department for Work and Pensions
Author: Great Britain. National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 52
Release: 2009
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780102954630

The majority of carers who receive benefits from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are satisfied with the support they receive, worth up to GBP 2 billion a year. The Department is delivering carers' benefits effectively and has made improvements in processing claims over years.

Gaining and Retaining a Job

Gaining and Retaining a Job
Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 70
Release: 2005-10-13
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0102935629

In 2004, of the 6.7 million disabled people of working age in Britain, 50 per cent were in employment compared to 75 per cent of the working age population as a whole. The Government has made a commitment to increase the employment rate of disabled people and to reduce the difference between their employment rate and the overall rate by 2006. This NAO report examines the barriers faced by disabled people in finding and retaining employment, the specialist programmes and schemes provided by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to address this issue, the quality and accessibility of support available, and the cost effectiveness of such schemes. The report finds that the DWP funds a broad range of schemes (which are managed by Jobcentre Plus and contracted out to a range of providers in the public, private and voluntary sectors) and is on course to meet its target for increasing the employment rate of disabled people. However, more progress is needed to ensure such programmes benefit a wider number of people, and recommendations made include the need to establish a more flexible modular approach to programmes; to improve data collection and verification schemes to monitor services; to promote enhanced efficiency through better contracting; to provide greater support and training for advisers; to improve the cost effectiveness of Remploy businesses and to ensure better support to help individuals find alternative employment if necessary; and for the DWP to develop a clearer strategy for engaging with employers at a local level.

Department for Work and Pensions: Public Consultation: Reshaping Workplace Pensions for Future Generations - Cm. 8710

Department for Work and Pensions: Public Consultation: Reshaping Workplace Pensions for Future Generations - Cm. 8710
Author: Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 74
Release: 2013-11-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780101871020

In Reinvigorating workplace pensions1 published last November, the Government set out to explore whether there was scope for a new category of defined ambition (DA) pensions that would complement the defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) structures that currently dominate the market. Automatic enrolment and the single-tier State Pension will provide a firm foundation for saving for retirement. But if the current forms of DC pension saving become the default alternative to traditional DB, the pension income of future generations from workplace pensions will be more uncertain than for past generations. Over the last 12 months the DA project - a joint project between DWP and the pensions industry - has been exploring options in a middle ground. The Government proposes that the regulation of workplace pension schemes should not focus on the detail of benefit design but on what is important to the member: ensuring that any promise or guarantee, whether from the sponsoring employer or scheme, provider is delivered. This Government proposes to make it easier for employers to sponsor new pension schemes where benefits accrue on a specified basis (e.g. related to salary); and also to allow additional flexibilities for future accruals only within existing DB schemes, including the possibility of allowing a statutory override to facilitate these changes. The new flexibility will remove constraints from the existing legislative framework while still giving employees the certainty of a pension scheme where the benefits are defined (such as in relation to their salary) with the security of the promise being sponsored by their employer

Department for Work and Pensions Autumn Performance Report

Department for Work and Pensions Autumn Performance Report
Author: Great Britain. Department for Work and Pensions
Publisher:
Total Pages: 90
Release: 2002
Genre: Finance
ISBN: 9780101566025

This report details the progress made by the Department of Work and Pensions towards meeting its Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets since its first departmental report published in Spring 2002 (Cm. 5424, ISBN 0101542429). It also sets out the Department's revised PSA under the 2002 Spending Review.