Gordon Brown

Regional Cabinet meetings of the UK Parliament

Retrieved on:

Friday, February 7, 2020

British MPs, House of Commons of the United Kingdom, Cabinet Office, Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Downing Street, Cabinet of Australia, Gordon Brown, Constitution of the United Kingdom, 10 Downing Street, United Kingdom government formation

House of Commons Library

Key Points:

House of Commons Library
This note lists Cabinet meetings held away from Downing Street.
Regional Cabinet meetings were introduced by Gordon Brown in 2008 and continued under the Coalition Government.
Theresa May held her first regional Cabinet meeting in the north-west in January 2017.
Prior to 2008, Cabinet meetings outside London were extremely rare.

Benefits Uprating 2020

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Gordon Brown, Pension Credit, Price indices, Economy, Tax credit, Indexation, Economics, Money, State Pension, Retail price index

This note sets out the main benefit and tax credit rates for the 2020/21 financial year.

Key Points:

This note sets out the main benefit and tax credit rates for the 2020/21 financial year.
Indexation of benefits in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) resumes for all inflation-linked benefits and tax credits this year, resulting in a 1.7% increase.
This follows a four-year period (2015/16-2019/20) during which most working-age benefits (except for disability and carers benefits) were held at their 2015/16 cash value, and a three-year period before that (2013/14-2015/16) when increases were limited to 1% per annum.
For the purposes of the 2020/21 uprating, earnings growth (+3.9%) was the highest of these three benchmarks, meaning that:
Pension Credit Guarantee Credit is required to increase at least in line with earnings.

Pension Credit - current issues

Retrieved on:

Saturday, April 20, 2019

Economy, Finance, Money, Gordon Brown, Pension Credit, State Pension, Pension, Pensions in the United Kingdom, Income Support

Thursday, April 18, 2019Looks at some of the issues currently raised in connection with Pension Credit - including the introduction of changes for 'mixed age couples'

Key Points:

Guarantee Credit provides financial help for people aged over the qualifying age for Pension Credit (linked to the State Pension age) whose income is below a set amount.
Savings Credit is an extra amount for people aged 65 or over, who have made some provision for their retirement (such as savings, or a second pension) (State Pension Credit Act 2002, s 2-3).
There is transitional protection for mixed age couples entitled to Pension Credit or Housing Benefit for People over Pension Credit qualifying age at the date of change, while they continue to be entitled to either benefit (SI 2019/37; Gov.UK -Pension Credit/eligibility).
For more on the background, see Library Briefing Paper CBP-01439 Pension Credit - background (2011) and 02/19 The State Pension Credit Bill [HL] (March 2002).

Pension Credit - 2017 onwards

Retrieved on:

Saturday, January 19, 2019

Economy, Finance, Money, Pensions in the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown, Pension Credit, State Pension, Pension, Disability pension

Friday, January 18, 2019Looks at some of the issues currently raised in connection with Pension Credit - including the introduction of changes for 'mixed age couples'

Key Points:

Guarantee Credit provides financial help for people aged over the qualifying age for Pension Credit (linked to the State Pension age) whose income is below a set amount.
The qualifying age is rising in line with the State Pension age (State Pension Credit Act 2002, s 1).
There is transitional protection for mixed age couples entitled to Pension Credit or Housing Benefit for People over Pension Credit qualifying age at the date of change, while they continue to be entitled to either benefit (SI 2019/37; Gov.UK -Pension Credit/eligibility).
For more on the background, see Library Briefing Paper CBP-01439 Pension Credit - background (2011) and 02/19 The State Pension Credit Bill [HL] (March 2002).