LATE CLAIMS FOR WIDOW'S BENEFIT WHERE DEATH IS DIFFICULT TO ESTABLISH (Hansard, 3 April 1990)

§ Mrs. Gillian Shephard
I beg to move Amendment No. 68, in page 6, line 47, leave out 'his'.

§ Madam Deputy Speaker
With this it will be convenient to take Government Amendments Nos. 69 to 74.

§ Mrs. Shephard
All these amendments fulfil a commitment that we gave in Committee. In this group of amendments, we undertook to see if the already beneficial provision proposed in clause 5 in Committee for widows could be extended to widows' invalidity pensions. I am happy to say that we have been able to do so.
To deal briefly with the background to the provision, we have been conscious of the difficulties faced by widows who, because of circumstances beyond their control, make a late claim for widow's benefit and then find themselves caught by the existing 12 months limitation on payment of arrears.
The type of case we have in mind—fortunately, there is a small number of such cases—is where the widow's claim is delayed more than 12 months because her husband has disappeared and there is a lengthy delay in the discovery of his body; or if his body is not found, when she has to rely instead on the presumption of death provisions. Such cases are fortunately rare, but they do exist; we felt it right and proper to make special provision for them, and we did so in the Bill. The clause provides that there shall be no limitation on the payment of arrears of widow's benefit where a claim which is late is made within 12 months of: the date on which the widow first knew of her husband's death, where his body has been found; or the date on which the adjudication authority gives a determination of presumption of death where no body has been found.
Also, because some of these women will be of pensionable age, the clause as drafted lifts the normal 12 months on review of earlier decisions awarding benefit. So that a woman receiving the married woman's lower rate of category B retirement pension, who establishes belatedly that she is in fact a widow, can have her pension reviewed to the higher rate appropriate to a widow, back to the date of widowhood.
I come now to the purpose of the proposed amendments. They extend the provision to two further benefits—thus going further than the commitment we gave in Committee.
First, we propose extending it to cover widows invalidity pension under section 15 of the Pensions Act. This is an alternative route to IVP for a widow who, although she is incapable of work when widowed, does not qualify on her own contributions. That was a specific matter of debate in Committee. It enables her to get invalidity benefit, exceptionally by using her late husband's contribution record—and would benefit the widow who was too young for a widow's pension at all or who perhaps has only a low rate of widow's pension 1119 because of her age when widowed. It would also benefit a widow whose late husband's contribution record entitled her to a higher rate of invalidity pension than her own record.
Secondly, a widow who remains incapable of work until pensionable age and who does not qualify for a category A retirement pension on her own contributions in the normal way can, exceptionally, become entitled on her late husband's contributions. Again, such cases are rare, but we accept the logic of extending that beneficial provision for women who are widowed in that particularly horrible way, to widows' invalidity pension and to the consequential retirement pension where appropriate.
These amendments extend a beneficial measure to more widows. I commend them to the House.