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Lord Higgins: Whether or not there should be a separate report is perhaps a matter to which we may return later. It depends to what extent the department's report may reasonably be regarded as a best seller. Subject to that, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
[Amendment No. 104 not moved.]
[Amendments Nos. 105 and 106 not moved.]
Schedule 2 [Minor and consequential amendments]:
Baroness Hollis of Heigham moved Amendment No. 107:
- Page 23, leave out lines 13 to 22 and insert—
The noble Baroness said: I should be in dire disgrace if I had said "not moved" to this amendment. I was hoping at least to have some modest acknowledgement from the noble Lord. Although he has put pressure on us for not producing regulations, he might at least compliment us on so far not having to bring forward a series of government amendments to amend their own legislation, which has sometimes been the fate of previous Bills.
Paragraph 17 to Schedule 2 provides for the introduction of a new Section 159B to the Social Security Administration Act 1992. The purpose of this amendment is to change the wording of the new Section 159B to prevent a technical difficulty which might arise in the pension credit decision making process. Having identified this possible glitch, I feel that it is right to introduce a preventative amendment now.
The introduction of new Section 159B to the Social Security Administration Act 1992 gives the Secretary of State the power to make routine adjustments to pension credit for uprating purposes. This includes the power to make advance decisions on entitlement to pension credit on the basis of uprated amounts after the uprating order has been made.
However, the problem we have identified is that it would not allow decisions on entitlement using uprated amounts in the time period between the Secretary of State's announcement of the uprated
The Government's aim is to facilitate advance claims for pension credit and to invite invitations to claim it four months in advance of the person's date of retirement.
It is feasible that such an invitation to claim is sent, and therefore that the claim for pension credit is made, during the time period I have just mentioned—between the Secretary of State making a statement in the House of Commons about the proposed uprated amounts of pension credit, and the date the uprating order is made.
So, for example, the uprating statement would normally be made in November, but the uprating order would not normally be made until February. Therefore, people who reached retirement age in, say, April, would be invited to claim pension credit in December—four months prior to retirement age. But decision-makers would be prevented from adjudicating on their claims using the rates which would apply when the person reached retirement age in February.
Such a problem has been encountered in the past, with claims to retirement pension. The result was that advance claims for retirement pension were stockpiled until the uprating order was made, thus incurring an increased administrative burden and cost. The Social Security Act 1998 introduced a new section—Section 155A—to the Social Security Administration Act 1992 to deal with that problem.
This amendment, specifically new subsection (4A), introduces an equivalent provision for pension credit while maintaining the original powers in the current draft. It would allow decisions to be made on advance claims to pension credit based on uprated amounts where the claim related to a period starting after the uprated amounts became payable; and the Secretary of State had made a statement in the House of Commons about the proposed uprated amounts of pension credit; but the order which brought the uprated amounts into force had not yet been made.
It is essentially a technical amendment, necessary to ensure that the claims process for pension credit can take place in a logical and legally sound manner. It is right that we take action now. I hope that the Committee will accept this technical amendment.
On Question, amendment agreed to.
Schedule 2, as amended, agreed to.
House resumed: Bill reported with an amendment.
"(4) Subsection (4A) below applies where a statement is made in the House of Commons by or on behalf of the Secretary of State which specifies—
(a) in relation to any of the items referred to in subsection (1)(b)(i) to (iv) above, the amount of the alteration which he proposes to make by an order under section 150 or 152 above or by or under any other enactment, and
(b) the date on which he proposes to bring the alteration into force ("the proposed commencing date").
(4A) If, in a case where this subsection applies, an award of state pension credit is made in favour of a person before the proposed commencing date and after the date on which the statement is made, the award—
(a) may provide for state pension credit to be paid as from the proposed commencing date at a rate determined by reference to the amounts of the items specified in subsection (1)(b)(i) to (iv) above which will be in force on that date, or
(b) may be expressed in terms of the amounts of those items in force at the date of the award."
29 Jan 2002 : Column 205House adjourned at twenty-seven minutes past ten o'clock.
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