Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2006

I am grateful to the Members of the Committee who have commented on the regulations. I shall take first the comments made by the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, to my noble friend. Although he cited the RPI figure of 2.7 per cent, he might also have referred to the other actions that the Government have taken to help poorer people. One must take this in the round, rather than just focusing on the RPI index for those benefits that are raised in line with price inflation. That brings me to the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Howard. The question of pension credit is very interesting. The Turner commission commented on it and we are giving consideration to it in our wider consideration of pensions. We should acknowledge that the impact of pension credit has been to lift many pensioners out of poverty. There is a very strong case for the kind of targeted intervention that that has brought. Indeed, since I have come to this job, I have often commented on the impact on older people whom I have met who receive pension credit—the enormous difference that it has made to their lives. However, we are at present considering the wider issue of the link between contributions and pensions in response to the Turner commission report. We are holding an open debate. There was a meeting on Tuesday that Members of the Committee may have been able to attend. We are also holding extensive public consultation on 18 March and will be bringing forward a White Paper in the spring. The question of the over-80 age addition is very interesting. The age addition is paid to state pension recipients aged 80 or over and was introduced in September 1971, when the value of the basic state pension for a single person was just £6 a week and the amount of 25p constituted a more substantial sum in relation to the total state pension. It was introduced in recognition of the special claims of much older people, who generally need rather more help than others. The age addition has never been uprated by any government since 1971. We have of course considered suggestions that the addition should be increased but, because the amount would be paid as a state pension, it would be taxable and the increase could also have an impact on the amount of state support that people receive through other benefits. That is why we have looked at different ways to ensure that pensioners over the age of 80 will benefit fully from any additional payments. Rather than alter the rate of the age addition, which we are maintaining, we decided that the best way forward was for households that include a person aged 80 or over to get an extra tax-free, lump-sum payment of £100 as part of their winter fuel payment entitlement—the 80-plus annual payment. The noble Lord asked me how those figures might be uprated. The information that I have is that if we had uprated the age addition by inflation since 1971, it would be £2.34 in 2005–06 and £2.40 in 2006–07. If we had uprated by inflation since 1997, it would be 30p in 2005–06 and 31p in 2006–07. I hope that that is helpful to the noble Lord. The noble Lord, Lord Howard, asked me one or two questions about child allowances. I do not have the information with me. I wonder whether he would mind if I wrote to him about that. Having said that, I commend the order. On Question, Motion agreed to.