§ 49. Mr. Farrasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will introduce legislation to make it possible that, in circumstances where one partner of a couple drawing retirement pension is pre vented by ill health from work, that partner's earning entitlement can be transferred to the other.
§ Mr. PentlandNo, Sir. The level of earnings at which reductions from pension begin is fixed to support the retirement condition and it would, therefore, be inconsistent to have a higher limit for a particular group of retirement pensioners. The hon. Gentleman has written about a rather different type of case, and I shall be, replying to him shortly.
§ Mr. FarrI am obliged to the Minister for his courtesy. Is it not grossly unfair that when a husband is unfit to earn anything at all, all the dependant's portion of the pension is stopped if the wife earns more than £2 16s. a week?
§ Mr. PentlandProvision is explicitly made in the regulations for the reasonable cost of making provision for the care of a member of the kind of household about which the hon. Gentleman is concerned.