Clause 9 - Duration of assessed income period
State Pension Credit Bill [Lords]
12:30 pm
Professor Steve Webb (Northavon, Liberal Democrat)
In the circumstances that the Minister describes, will it be an offence not to report an anticipated major change in income? If I knew that I was going to receive an endowment payment in six months' time, I would rather not tell the Department and have an assessment made for five years, knowing that when it did happen I could then say that it could not affect my entitlement for five years. However, it is fraudulent to fail to report something that is known to be coming down the track. I realise that one cannot always know with certainty when one is going to draw down such moneys, and one may not have known at the time of the claim. Are we about to open that can of worms?