Civil Service Dispute (Retirement Pensioners) (Hansard, 7 July 1981)

§ 5. Mr. Rooker
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he is satisfied with arrangements for new retirement pensioners during the Civil Service dispute.

§ The Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security (Mrs. Lynda Chalker)
We regret the industrial action which has held up the issue of advance invitations to claim retirement pension and also prevented access to the contribution records used to calculate entitlement to retirement pension in new cases. In early June, we arranged for national publicity on and after 17 June to stress the need for those reaching pension age after 6 July to make their claim to their local office in good time to avoid possible loss of benefit. We have introduced special arrangements, backed by new regulations, to provide for interim payments at a basic rate to most new pensioners until new claims can be decided by the statutory adjudicating authorities.

§ Mr. Rooker
Why did the Government wait so long to issue the new regulations and to publish the advertisements advising pensioners when they could have taken the action 10 weeks earlier? Will the Minister confirm that, although emergency payments are being paid as from yesterday, any woman who reaches the age of 60 from this week and whose husband remains at work will not get even an 250 emergency payment, even if she has paid into the national insurance fund for a pension in her own right during the whole of her working life? If the hon. Lady can confirm that, will she try to defend it?

§ Mrs. Chalker
Had we acted earlier, we could have caused a great deal of unnecessary confusion and worry to those reaching pension age before 6 July. Those persons had had their claims processed, and their pension was being calculated in the normal way. We took immediate action as soon as we knew that the dispute would not be resolved at the beginning of June to make sure that all those likely to be affected would have the information. All the advertisements were approved at the earliest possible opportunity so that the information could be given to all those who might be affected.
I can confirm that married women whose husbands remain in employment are not catered for by these arrangements. It would be physically impossible for them to be so, bearing in mind the pressure on the Department's local offices, which are seeking to respond and to ensure that payments are made available to all those who, because of the industrial action taken by a few people in the Department, are without their rightful entitlement.

§ Mr. McCrindle
On the broader question of pension entitlement during the Civil Service dispute, will my hon. Friend take the opportunity to repeat that those already on pensions will continue to receive them on production of the stubs of the expired pension book? Failure to understand that is causing some unnecessary difficulties in certain quarters.

§ Mrs. Chalker
I confirm what my hon. Friend said. If people are already collecting their pensions, they continue to go to their local post offices to receive their pension, which will be paid week by week on production of their expired pension book. I stress that the pension must be claimed weekly. It cannot be paid several weeks at a time, as would be possible if an existing book were in operation. If there are any queries about the payment of pensions or other benefits, I ask hon. Members to advise their constituents to go to their local offices, where the instructions are clearly displayed and where the staff can advise on the best course of action to take.

§ Mr. Mike Thomas
Does the Minister agree that the hon. Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr. Rooker) cannot have it both ways? He supports the dispute, as do the official Opposition, but should they not have the courage to tell the Civil Service unions that action affecting pensioners and those who draw benefits is not the best way of making their well-justified point?

§ Mrs. Chalker
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. The way to ensure that those who are most vulnerable in society do not suffer is for a speedy return to work by all those who are at present holding up the payment of benefits to the hardest hit in society.

§ Mr. Rooker
That is in the Government's hands.

§ Mr. Paul Dean
While I welcome the arrangements that the Government have made, may I ask my hon. Friend to give an assurance that new pensioners will be given the benefit of any doubt and that there will be no question of those likely to be entitled to pension having to apply for supplementary benefit?

§ Mrs. Chalker
I am sure that I can give my hon. Friend that assurance. But if, before pension entitlement is fully 251 worked out, there is any case of hardship or need, I am quite sure that the local office will be able to help any pensioner in that predicament, perhaps through supplementary benefit, if other entitlements cannot be finalised.

§ Mr. Buchan
Is not there a stark contrast between the Government's behaviour in this dispute and the behaviour of the civil servants? Under extreme provocation and frustration, the civil servants have continued to ensure that the beneficiaries have been paid while the Government, who from the beginning knew that they intended to provoke and maintain a long-standing dispute, failed to take any measures to alert the beneficiaries. It was left to us to involve even the CBI to help with the publicity. That is disgraceful. Is not the best solution for the Government to drop their intransigence, to follow the lead that has been taken by the Civil Service, to settle the dispute, to give some justice back to the civil servants and to make sure that all beneficiaries are paid at the proper time and at the proper level?

§ Mrs. Chalker
The only way in which people who are vulnerable in society can be protected from the continuing industrial action is for civil servants to take up their grievances as they have always done in the past and not to withhold the payment of benefit through our computer centres. The hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well that extensive efforts have been made by my right hon. and hon. Friends at the Civil Service Department. Those efforts will continue and will bring this dispute to a successful resolution.