New Clause 28
Pensions Bill
2:30 pm
Andrew Selous (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; South West Bedfordshire, Conservative)
Not for the first time the hon. Member for Northampton, North has rendered a service to the Committee by raising an important issue. It has certainly been raised with me by a number of my pensioner constituents, not least by the Dunstable and District Association of Senior Citizens, which I meet regularly.
As the hon. Lady said, her new clause would remove the carer’s allowance and the state retirement pension from the overlapping benefit rule, which says that it is not possible to receive more than one earnings replacement benefit at the same time. It does not just apply to those two benefits, but to contribution-based jobseeker’s allowance, incapacity benefit, maternity allowance, widow’s or bereavement pension, widowed mother’s or parent’s allowance and severe disablement allowance.