Saving Gateway Accounts Bill

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for the terms in which she has moved the amendment, as she is seeking to ensure that the scheme should be as effective and efficient as possible. The amendment is constructive. HMRC’s saving gateway system will receive periodic updates from the DWP and from the Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland about people who are entitled to the qualifying benefits for the saving gateway. There will be a similar process to transfer information from HMRC’s tax code system. Based on that information, HMRC will issue the notices of eligibility. The amendment would ensure that that is done within one month. We expect that that would largely be the case. The exact frequency of the date of transfer from DWP systems has not yet been determined, as the IT system is still being developed, but it is very likely to be more frequent than once a month, so it should be able to effect exactly what the amendment suggests. Once the data have been transferred from DWP to HMRC, it will of course need to be matched to the data already held on the saving gateway system to prevent duplicate notices being sent, but there should not be significant delays in the notices of eligibility being issued, because that will be an automated process. I hope that the noble Baroness and the Committee will appreciate that there may be circumstances in which it will just not be possible to issue notices of eligibility within one month of the person becoming eligible. For example, if there is a problem with someone's claim for one of the qualifying benefits, there can be a delay in the benefit being awarded, and, therefore, and inevitable delay in HMRC being advised of their eligibility. Their entitlement to the benefit will generally be backdated to the date of their claim, which will therefore be the date on which they were eligible for the saving gateway. A month may have already elapsed. In that situation, it is just impossible for HMRC to meet the requirement that it must issue notices of eligibility within one month of the person becoming eligible. Although HMRC will certainly aim to issue notices as promptly as possible—we anticipate that we will largely be able to meet the point that the noble Baroness is driving at in her amendment of a limit of one month—it must carry out the necessary checks to confirm eligibility. It may be that for other reasons time has elapsed from the date on which the person is defined as being eligible and HMRC having the information to issue the notice. There is not a great deal of difference between us on how we want the scheme to work, and I certainly agree with the noble Baroness that it is important to make the proposal early. We want the scheme to be as efficient as possible, but the amendment would introduce a rigidity which we could not guarantee that HMRC would be able to deliver. Therefore, I hope that she will feel able to withdraw the amendment.