Clause 2
Pensions Bill
4:00 pm
James Plaskitt (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions; Warwick and Leamington, Labour)
I welcome you to the chairmanship of the Committee for our sitting this afternoon, Mr. Taylor.
We now come to the provision that ends the requirement that entitlement to category B pension is dependent on a category A pension having been claimed by the person’s spouse or civil partner. Hopefully, clause 2 is one of the more straightforward clauses in the Bill. It simply will remove the current restriction on entitlement to a category B pension, which is a pension based on the contribution of a person’s spouse or civil partner rather than on that person’s own contribution in situations when the spouse or civil partner defers claiming his or her category A pension.
Category B pensions for married people and people in civil partnerships are payable at about 60 per cent. of the standard rate of basic pension. They are still commonly known as married women’s pensions, but from 2010 they will be available to some married men and people in civil partnerships.