Pensions Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:15 pm on 2 July 2013.
Our star draftsman could not quite keep it up for schedule 2, so this is a bit more bog standard, for want of a better phrase, rather than avant garde. However, it does the job. Schedule 2 underpins clause 5 to set out the basis for up-rating the transitional rate of the state pension. The Committee will remember that a transitional rate is for the people who have the bit before and the bit after 2016. Different operating mechanisms are used for the amount up to the full single tier, and for the protected payment, earnings at least for amounts up to the full single tier, prices for any protective payment—obviously, both in law are minimum, but a future Government can be more generous.
Schedule 2 defines the transitional rate as the rate that first, includes any reductions arising from a state pension debit under clause 14, but excluding any increases because a person has deferred their pension under clause 17. I hope that clarifies the purpose of the relatively brief schedule 2, and I commend it to the Committee.
The parliamentary draftsman might not be able to keep it up, and neither can I in this sense. I will rest on the Minister’s explanation of schedule 2.