Clause 3 - Savings credit
State Pension Credit Bill [Lords]
3:15 pm
Mr Tim Boswell (Daventry, Conservative)
It is not too good in farming at the moment either.
The Minister said that such matters would constitute a change in circumstance. Whether the change would be notified by the prison authorities or the individual concerned is perhaps a matter for regulation, and a person would start again when released from prison. We could create many interesting scenarios about the proceeds of crime that had not been picked up and confiscated—I am neither advocating that nor entertaining it, but such an elucidation is interesting because the pensioner's income may have changed during prison, perhaps because, for example, he had received a substantial windfall from an auntie.
Because of the nature of the change of circumstances or the interruption, a flow of pension credit that would have been payable from day one for five years on an assessment would have to be reassessed and may give rise to a lower form of income thereafter. That constitutes not double provision, but double penalty. The right hon. Gentleman may want to reflect, not necessarily now—we are at the edge of determining the matter—whether he wants such an outcome.
It was not a waste of time to table the amendment. We are worried about targeting, although the explanatory notes confirm that the measure concerns enclosed orders for prisoners. We are worried about the operation of a change of circumstances and whether it is straightforward, which gives rise to an
apparent inequity between periods before or after incarceration. I hope that the Minister can respond to the issue now or reflect on it later.