Clause 5 - Procedure
Age-Related Payments Bill
10:45 am
Mr Malcolm Wicks (Minister for pensions, Department for Work and Pensions; Croydon North, Labour)
There was some sedentary puzzlement on the part of the Liberal Democrats when I mentioned Crystal Palace. For the historic record, I should say that I am a passionate supporter of Wolves. However, given that that team will, sadly, be spending some time in the first division, I am hoping that it will be replaced by my constituency team—the boys from Selhurst Park, Crystal Palace.
I hope that that is clear; I would not want there to be any mistake about that. I have not even mentioned that I come from a four-generation Arsenal family. That would complicate things. I should explain to the hon. Member for Eastbourne that this is not the game in which one picks up the ball and runs with it, but we can talk about that later.
Both the amendments relate to the very small number of households that will not receive the payment, along with the winter fuel payment, automatically. The only people who are required to claim the payment will be those who, for whatever reason, have not claimed their winter fuel payment for
2004. It is difficult to envisage why that would be the case, but none the less we need to cater for it in the legislation.
Amendment No. 12 would remove the cut-off point for making a claim, so that in theory a claim could be made any time in the future. There would be nothing to prevent a claim being made 10 or 20 years after the event. The hon. Member for Eastbourne did not think that there ever needed to be a cut-off point. If that were the case, we would have to set up arrangements for dealing with such claims, even though the numbers would probably be tiny. That would be impracticable and expensive.
The 31 March 2005 cut-off point applies to winter fuel payments. The rationale is that that payment covers the winter just gone, and that claims need to be finalised before work commences on the following winter's payments. The end of March cut-off date provides what I would argue to be a generous time frame for people to complete and return their claims, and for the Department to establish reliably that the qualifying conditions were met during the relevant week in September.
Allowing the claim period to run for more than six months would mean that people were not rushed into completing their forms—an important consideration for those who rely on help from relatives, friends, carers and neighbours, or who may have spent some time away from home for whatever reason.