HC Deb 09 May 1973 vol 856 cc703-5
Mr. Dell

I beg to move Amendment No. 129, in page 166, line 39, at end insert: 'Where an alternative prescribed under sub-paragraph 2(b) above includes payment by way of return of contributions and such payment is in respect of a period of service of two years or more, the amount repaid shall be supplemented by interest on those contributions accruing at a rate not less than that laid down by the Occupational Pensions Board for the purposes of this subsection'. It falls to me to move the last Opposition amendment. The Opposition have done the best they can. We have made a few amendments but the Bill remains a poor thing, and I am glad that it is the Government's own.

Here is the Government's last opportunity to make a slight amendment if they can agree that where contributions to occupational pension schemes are paid back into the reserve pension scheme and there is in addition a return of contributions and the period is in excess of two years there shall be a payment of interest on the contributions. The justice of that proposal is self-evident and I need say no more.

Mr. Dean

As the right hon. Gentleman says, he is moving the last Opposition amendment to the Bill, and I am sorry not to be able to give him a very encouraging reply before we draw stumps, much as I should like to be able to do so.

There are arguments both of principle and practice against acceptance of the amendment. First, as to principle, Schedule 14 is primarily concerned with establishing a system of preservation. Although it has seemed proper in the interests of flexibility and convenience to allow certain alternatives to preserved benefit, it would be alien to the central aim of the legislation to enter into the field of regulating refunds of contributions. The fact that the amendment relates to service of two years or more would also mean extending legislative requirements below the five years' service period set as a qualifying condition. To do so in this manner could not be justified as a necessary adjunct to the preservation strategy.

Refunds of contributions will be permitted in respect of service given before the operative date of the legislation, but this is essentially a transitional provision. We have laid down the twin qualifying conditions—five years' pensionable service and attainment of age 26—and made sure that people with less than this service need not lose out either. They will be covered either by benefits under a recognised scheme or by the reserve scheme. Already schemes, especially centralised schemes, are considering whether they will adopt lower qualifying conditions and thus do away with refunds altogether, even for less than five years' service. I hope that this will be increasingly the trend, and we do not think it appropriate to regulate as to the amount of a refund that a member receives.

Mr. George Cunningham

That is no reason whatever.

Amendment negatived.

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