I hope that I will not detain the Committee long on clause 81 which we also welcome. Consensus seems to be back on the menu.

This arose out of the creation of the pension credit system and the ruling that anyone 65 or over is not assessed on a weekly basis, as was the case with minimum income guarantee. There is no responsibility on pensions to report changes in income on a weekly basis. Instead, this is normally assessed on a five-yearly period with automatic uprating during the lifetime of the assessment. The policy assumption being that they are very unlikely to have any changes in their incomes over the age of 65.

What clause 81 is doing—and it is very welcome—is to say that those 75 and over will be given an indefinite assessed income period. Instead of having the intrusion, complications and confusion of a five-year assessment they will run on the existing basis. Presumably, there will still be an underlying obligation if they have a great windfall or something to inform the pensions service, but beyond that they will not be troubled. I can do no better than quote with approval the comment of Age Concern when they said:

“This proposal makes good sense and will be welcomed by people over 75 who will be able to look forward to a guaranteed income without having to go through a reassessment process. However, it is very important that people understand the system and know to ask for a reassessment if their financial situation changes and they become entitled to extra money”.

So we will endorse that and support the thrust of the clause.