Clause 42
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
11:30 am
Paul Rowen (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; Rochdale, Liberal Democrat)
The Minister and amendment No. 148, which I have tabled, seek to do very much the same thing in this very restricted area. I would like to quote from an evidence sitting in which I asked Hilary Reynolds about a particularly important point. My question was:
“However, if someone was working on the docks in Gibraltar, or any British naval dockyard not in the United Kingdom, would that affect payment?”
Her answer was:
“The intention of the power is to ensure that people who have a connection with the UK, either through their employment or because they live near an asbestos plant, are covered, and to avoid the equivalent of benefit tourists—if I am allowed to use that phrase. They are people with no connection to the UK who travel here to gain a lump sum. People working in the dockyards in Gibraltar would be covered because it is a UK establishment.”——[Official Report, Child Maintenance and Other Payments Public Bill Committee, 17 July 2007; c. 39, Q99.]