Clause 1 - Entitlement
State Pension Credit Bill [Lords]
12:15 pm
Ms Maria Eagle (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Minister for Disabled People), Department for Work and Pensions; Liverpool, Garston, Labour)
I will respond briefly to the hon. Gentleman's points to the best of my ability now and, if he is not satisfied, I will correspond with him later.
In respect of pensioners who go abroad for a three-month holiday, the new Pension Service should be more responsive to the needs of those whom they serve. Given that the hon. Gentleman's fictional holidaying pensioners already have pension credit, there is no problem in informing them of its existence, so we do not have to start from scratch. Certainly, there is no reason why they could not make an arrangement with the Pension Service by telephone or
e-mail to make contact as soon as they return, and reclaim pension credit as soon as possible.
Indeed, the fictional pensioners could receive advice about their entitlement and whether it would be affected by the length of stay because, although they may be aware of the pension credit, they probably would not be aware without further inquiry that it would cease after four weeks. There is no reason why they could not get advice about the implications of being away for three months before leaving. No doubt the Pension Service will be much more capable of doing that now that it has been disaggregated from the Benefits Agency, and is no longer trying to deal with working-age benefits as well.
In respect of overpayments, whether or not they are inadvertent, the Department always tries to be as reasonable as possible. Clearly, overpayments must be repaid unless the Department is at fault; in which case, there is discretion to look at whether overpayments are collected. I hope that the Department always deals with such issues as sensitively as possible and makes proper arrangements to pay over a period of time. I would expect that to happen in this case. Normal rules apply and nothing will be changed.