Clause 4 - Disqualifications
Age-Related Payments Bill
10:15 am
Mr Malcolm Wicks (Minister for pensions, Department for Work and Pensions; Croydon North, Labour)
The Opposition amendment would have the effect of paying the extra £100 to the 6,000 people aged over 70 who have been in hospital for more than a year. That would cost £600,000.
Before I go into the detail of the amendment, I shall set it in context. Clause 4 prescribes the circumstances in which a person may be disqualified from receiving a payment. That includes those who have been receiving free in-patient hospital treatment continuously for 52 weeks, subject to this amendment, those who are in custody and those who are subject to immigration control. Again, that mirrors the criteria for the winter fuel payment system. The clause also provides for an eligible partner of the disqualified person to be treated as a single person for the purposes of this payment, so they will not lose entitlement because of their partner's disqualification.
To provide some statistical backing to the clause, the vast majority of people who are admitted to hospital—97 per cent.—are discharged within six weeks. Until April last year, benefits and pensions were reduced initially after six weeks with a further reduction at 52 weeks. Hospital downrating was the subject of controversy and, obviously, policy development, so I hope that members of the Committee recognise that there has been a massive improvement in the situation.
People in hospital can now keep their benefits in full for the first 52 weeks. Housing benefit and council tax benefit usually stop altogether after 52 weeks unless, of course, the patient has a partner still living at home. As I said earlier, patients who were previously living alone and still have a property will not have a council tax liability. An unoccupied dwelling is exempt from council tax when the owners or tenants have their sole or main residence in a hospital while receiving treatment or care. If the patient has left behind a partner, the partner will be entitled to 25 per cent. single person discount. If patients have partners, the Bill makes provision after 52 weeks for their eligible spouses to be treated for the purposes of the payment as a single person. They will receive £100 in their own right if they were the only eligible person in the household.