Extract from Business Questions Gill Furniss (Sheffield, Brightside
and Hillsborough) (Lab): A group of my constituents have reported
their employer, Horizon Care Homes Ltd, to the Pensions Regulator
for allegedly failing to pay its pension contributions into the
Government’s NEST—National Employment Savings Trust—pension scheme.
I have contacted the regulator and they have informed me that they
are legally unable to give me any information about their
investigation, even with my...Request free trial
Extract from Business
Questions
(Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab): A group
of my constituents have reported their employer, Horizon Care Homes
Ltd, to the Pensions Regulator for allegedly failing to pay its
pension contributions into the Government’s NEST—National
Employment Savings Trust—pension scheme. I have contacted
the regulator and they have informed me that they are legally
unable to give me any information about their investigation, even
with my constituent’s consent. This makes it extremely hard for me
to assist them. Will the Leader of the House support me in allowing
a debate in this Chamber to ensure that MPs can gain appropriate
access to the information needed to assist our constituents facing
problems with their pensions?
Mr Rees-Mogg: I am going to answer this question slightly
tentatively, because I am calling on memory of what I think the law
says about giving information to Members. My understanding and
memory are that businesses are not obliged to give information to
Members, but there is an exemption in the data protection rules
that allows them to give information if they choose to do so. So my
understanding is that this is a refusal of the organisation to give
information under its own procedures, not one by law. Therefore, I
would encourage and support the hon. Lady in continuing to put
pressure on the organisation not to be obstructive of Members of
Parliament doing their job.
Extracts from Westminster
HAll debate on Covid-19: Household Debt
(Makerfield) (Lab) [V]:...We also need to
better fund our advice agencies, which expect to see an enormous
increase in demand for their services once furlough ends. They are
now struggling with a serious income shortfall because people have
not been visiting them while measures have been in place to
mitigate the problems with finance, but those people are building
up problems for the future. Such advice agencies offer free debt
advice services based on a comprehensive assessment of a person’s
situation and then provide practical help and support for however
long it is needed. The increase in funding from the Money and Pensions Service is
welcome, but applying contract rules rather than grant funding will
impose VAT and remove most of that benefit. Could that be looked at
again, as it appears to be giving with one hand and taking back
with the other?
(Blackpool North
and Cleveleys) (Con) [V]:...Debt advisers do a fantastic job,
as the hon. Lady said. I welcome the increased funding from
the Money and Pensions Service but I
am also aware that debt advisers may not have the specialist
knowledge needed to interrogate tax debt and to ascertain whether
or not debt that an individual is informed about is actually owed
in the first place. TaxAid and Tax Help for Older People, two
charities that help with tax cases, looked at the data from 66
cases on their system from August 2019 to just before the covid
pandemic started. The total debt for those 66 cases when they first
approached TaxAid was more than £230,000. After Tax Aid had done
its work, only £46,000 of that debt remained: only 25% of what was
originally cited...
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury ():...We
also recognise that even when the economy bounces back, and there
are very encouraging signs in that direction, there will still be
people living in fear of a knock from a debt collector or another
payment demand. That is why we have introduced the numerous
policies that have been mentioned this afternoon. I would like to
respond to Members’ points about the policies that we have
introduced to help people escape debt. As has been highlighted
today, we are maintaining record levels of funding for free debt
advice in England through the Money and Pensions Service this
year, with a budget of £96.4 million. I recognise that there is
still some uncertainty about the nature of that demand as people’s
situations become clearer, but that includes funding for the Money
Adviser Network pilots, which simplify access to debt advice. I am
pleased to say that more than 40 different creditor organisations
are now signed up, including HM Revenue and Customs.
I recognise hon. Members’ concerns about the complexity of
tax debts, but consumers referred via the network will first have a
conversation with an HMRC adviser, which should minimise the risk
of misunderstanding over what is owed. The Money and Pensions Service budget
also includes funding for the administration of debt relief orders.
A number of colleagues have raised that this afternoon. We know
that DROs can be an important solution for some, which is why we
worked closely with the Insolvency Service to raise the monetary
eligibility limits for DROs from the end of last month, a step that
will help more people take advantage of this valuable option...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
HERE
|
