Clause 2 - Entitlement: basic cases
Age-Related Payments Bill
10:00 am
Mr Nigel Waterson (Shadow Minister, Economic Affairs; Eastbourne, Conservative)
The Minister needs to slow down a bit; we are not making progress quite that rapidly.
These are certainly probing amendments, but when I rose to speak to them, it was beyond my wildest dreams that they would probe quite so deeply. It now appears that, contrary to what we have been told—indeed, contrary to a criticism that I advanced on Second Reading—this stand-alone payment is not unrelated to the benefit system. I have just broken the habit of a lifetime and reached for the explanatory notes in the hope that they might tell me the answer, but as far as I can see they do not. This is an important issue. The examples put forward by the hon. Member for Northavon are by no means fanciful; they are real-life situations. Members of this House will receive correspondence, and people will come to their advice surgeries, saying, ''I have only had £50; why did I not get £100?'' Out in the country, people over 70 will all expect to get £100.
If the parameters are not yet clear, they need to be cleared up very quickly, and certainly by Report stage. It would be helpful if the Minister wrote to us soon, so that we could digest what he has to say, think about it in relation to these groups and think of any new points that can sensibly be debated next week.
My amendments have more than served their purpose. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 2 ordered to stand part of the Bill.