Clause 9
Pensions Bill
12:30 pm
Andrew Selous (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; South West Bedfordshire, Conservative)
We welcome the clause, as it means that a wider range of carers, parents and disabled people will be treated as earning at the lower earnings threshold of £12,500 a year for 2006-07 for state second pension purposes. We particularly welcome the fact that the labour market attachment test, which required people to pay class 1 national insurance contributions for a 10th of their working life since 1978, will no longer apply. We are especially pleased about the provision as it affects carers.
I have just one question for the Minister. The explanatory notes on the Bill state that at present parents who are in receipt of child benefit for a child under six are treated as earning at the lower earnings threshold in respect of S2P. The notes also say that those people in receipt of home responsibilities protection are treated as being at the lower earnings threshold. Paragraph 32 of the explanatory notes defines home responsibilities protection as being awarded to people caring for children under 16. It is a minor point, which I have raised before with the Minister, but I should be grateful if he would clarify the issue of the different ages of children as it relates to qualifying for various levels of pension in the Bill.