Clause 8 - Fresh determinations increasing
State Pension Credit Bill [Lords]
12:15 pm
Mr James Clappison (Hertsmere, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 31, in page 5, line 43, after 'any', insert 'reasonable'.
Claimants may request a reassessment where circumstances have led to a reduction in income and, therefore, a potentially higher award of pension credit. Committee members will become familiar with this point during the morning. Where that happens, a determination is made regarding the elements or the amount of any of the elements of the retirement pension, which may have an effect on the pension credit.
The purpose of the amendment might seem to be to limit the opportunity for claimants to seek a reassessment and possibly an increase. However, I can tell the Committee that it is intended to ascertain,
in particular, whether claimants could seek a reassessment at any time during the five-year period. It is also designed to probe whether it will be possible for claimants to seek further determinations if an application should fail—that is, if it does not result in an increase in pension credit—and it would be interesting to know how many times a claimant may seek a determination in an assessed income period of five years. It would be useful if the Minister could say something about that, and tell the Committee how subsection (2) fits in with subsection (1), if subsection (2) is to deal with the situation where some elements are redetermined downwards and others upwards. The wording of subsection (2) is not as transparent as it might be.