Justification for age discrimination
3.12 The Government stated in the Explanatory Notes
to the Bill that restricting entitlement to those over 70 is "justified
on the grounds that members of this age group are less likely
to be in work, have less money and fixed incomes". The Minister
at Second Reading said:
it is particularly important to target pensioners
over 70, as most people in that age group have long since stopped
working and are on fixed incomes, so are disproportionately affected
by council tax increases, which often take up a larger portion
of their income compared with younger households. The evidence
supports that conclusion, and our own experience as Members of
Parliament is that the very elderly tend to be more financially
disadvantaged than people in their 60s.[19]
3.13 Any differential treatment in relation to the
enjoyment of a Convention right on grounds of age must be shown
to be justified by reference to the purpose of the measure, the
purpose of the differentiation, the impact on different classes
of people, and the proportionality of that interference.
3.14 Given the stated purpose of the measure, we
wrote to the Minister asking what was the rational connection
between a lump-sum payment and the stated object, given that it
bears no relation to different levels of council tax, or different
levels of increase in different parts of the country, nor any
relation to individual pensioners' means. The Minister responded
on 21 July. Since the Bill has now received the Royal Assent we
make no further comment, but place this correspondence on the
public record.[20]
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