State Pension Credit Bill [HL]

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 5:45 pm on 12 February 2002.

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Photo of Baroness Noakes Baroness Noakes Conservative 5:45, 12 February 2002

My Lords, in moving this amendment, I shall speak also to Amendment No. 21.

The amendment seeks to remove paragraph (a) from Clause 15(1), thereby removing "earnings" from the ambit of "income" for the purposes of the pension credit. It would mean that all of a person's earnings would be disregarded in all pension credit calculations—both guarantee credit and savings credit.

Amendment No. 21 is different. It seeks to introduce a specific earnings disregard based on part-time work of 16 hours, valued at the lowest wage rate; namely, the minimum wage. Both amendments would disregard all or part of "earnings".

In Committee, the Minister said that the position as regards earnings had not yet been decided. But it is an important issue—800,000 pensioners could be affected, and possibly even more if a younger spouse's earnings were factored in. We really do need to know exactly what the Government intend in regard to earnings. I do not believe that we should be expected to consider the Bill without knowing that. What the Government intend to do in regard to earnings is possibly one of the most important outstanding issues relating to the Bill. I hope that the Minister will now place the Government's intention on record. I beg to move.