Clause 5 - Procedure
Age-Related Payments Bill
11:00 am
Mr Nigel Waterson (Shadow Minister, Economic Affairs; Eastbourne, Conservative)
I think that I can grasp the concept of 99 per cent. However, the Minister should also appreciate that 1 per cent. means quite a lot of cases, and some of the individuals involved in them may have been subject to some of the tragic circumstances that he described in the context of bereavement allowance. It is easy to talk in percentages, but it is more relevant to talk about individuals. If we take the Minister's figures at face value, we are still talking about 1 per cent. of all the relevant people over 70.
I want to make a different point on the requirements for the claimant. There must be
''a declaration that the claimant was ordinarily resident in Great Britain on at least one day in the relevant week.''
The amendment that I had a stab at would have removed the phrase
''on at least one day in the relevant week.''
I can see the importance of being ''ordinarily resident''. That is a standard concept that is not difficult to prove—or disprove. However, why does there have to be this reference to just one day in the relevant week when the person could be in a different country for six of those seven days and for long periods either side of the relevant week? Is there not some scope for abuse here?
When we address pensioner organisations such as the National Pensioners Convention we tend to get into discussions about comparisons between different systems in different countries. I am always being told that some countries, such as Spain, give pensioners free holidays. There are enormous variations in how pensioners are treated by different national systems in the European Union, let alone elsewhere.
Someone who has a home in Spain or elsewhere might need to be here only for that one day in the relevant week. I hope and expect that the Minister will be able to tell me that there are other anti-avoidance provisions—that is a term that has come to be known and loved in discussions on the Pensions Bill—which will stop that abuse being perpetrated. However, it is odd that there is this artificial requirement of one day in the relevant week when the concept of being ordinarily resident, or even domiciled in the country, would happily suffice.