§ 34. Mr. Beswickasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance what steps he proposes to take to end the anomaly under which an Income Tax liability deducted weekly from a pensioner's earnings are taken into account before calculating the pension payable under the earnings rule, but a tax liability not deducted weekly, because of an administrative error in coding, is not so taken into account when the tax payment is made.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterI have no proposals to make on the general question which the hon. Member raises, but I am making inquiries into the particular case which he has in mind.
§ Mr. BeswickDoes the Minister appreciate that at present, if the Inland Revenue does not code a pensioner's earnings properly, he suffers by having more of his pension deducted? Is that a position which the right hon. Gentleman can tolerate? Will he tolerate it, or will he do something about it?
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterThe difficulty is that a little time ago the National Insurance Advisory Committee recommended that, for the purposes of the earnings rule, deductions made through P.A.Y.E. should not be taken into account. I have not accepted this recommendation so far, because I did not wish to diminish—in certain cases—the amount of permitted earnings. But the logical difficulty to which the hon. Member refers springs from this situation. I am having another look at the particular case which is troubling him.