PENSIONERS AND FAMILY INCOME SUPPLEMENT PAYMENTS BILL (Hansard, 28 November 1972)

§ THE MINISTER OF STATE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL SECURITY (LORD ABERDARE)
My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time. The Bill contains provisions for a special, once and for all, payment to pensioners. It also contains provisions for the extension of the period of awards of family income supplement.
The main purpose of the Bill is to enable a special payment of £10 to be made to about 8 million pensioners; that is, to persons who have attained pensionable age (65 for a man, 60 for a woman) and to whom certain qualifying pensions or benefits, as specified in the Bill, are payable for the week beginning December 4, 1972. Clauses 1 and 2 list the qualifying pensions and benefits. Included are: retirement pension (including old person's pension); invalidity pension; widow's benefit; attendance allowance; unemployability supplement or allowance; war widow's pension; industrial injuries widow's or widower's pension; supplementary pension.
An additional payment of £10 will be made to a number of these pensioners in respect of their spouses who are also over minimum pension age, but only one payment of £10 will be made in respect of any single individual. Of the total of 8 million persons who will get a payment, over 7½ million are retirement pensioners. Most married retirement pensioners have separate pension books, and a payment of £10 will be made on each book. Where, however, a person has an increase of his or her benefit for a spouse who is over 60, or where supplementary pension, which includes the requirements of a spouse who is over 60, is the only pension being paid to a couple, a payment of £20 will be made. In most cases, payment will be made when pensioners cash their pension order due for the week beginning December 4, 1972. In some cases, special payments will be sent by post either by one of the Department's local offices or by one of the central offices at Newcastle and Blackpool. I should like to pay tribute to the Post Office staff and sub-post- 1220 masters and to the staff of my own Department who have shown themselves very willing and have made special efforts to make it possible for the payment to be made so quickly and in time for Christmas.
Clause 3 amends the Family Income Supplement Acts, in particular, by extending the period for which family income supplement is normally awarded from 26 weeks to 52 weeks. The change will apply to awards made on or after April 3, 1973 but under a transitional provision 26-week awards which are current on that date will be extended to 52 weeks. This means that for 12 months from the date of an award the amount payable will not be affected by any change in the circumstances of the person concerned. As a result of the change, the number of people in receipt of family income supplement after April, 1973, will be about 10,000 higher than would otherwise have been the case, at a cost in a full year of £1 million. I ought also to mention to your Lordships that, as my right honourable friend said in another place last week, the Government intend that, subject to the approval of Parliament, the prescribed amounts for the family income supplement, which were uprated in April of this year, should be increased again with effect from April 3, 1973.
Clause 4 provides that the special payments to pensioners will come wholly out of the Exchequer—there will be no additional burden on contributors. The cost of the special payments will be about £80 million. Payments are tax-free and will not be taken into account as income for supplementary benefit or any other purposes. Pensioners in hospitals and in Part III accommodation who receive one of the qualifying benefits will receive the special payment in full.
The Bill applies to Northern Ireland as an exceptional measure which does not prejudice the normal constitutional arrangements on social security. I beg to move.

§ BARONESS PHILLIPS
My Lords, I should like to thank the Minister for explaining the Bill so clearly and in such a short time. It is a very nice feeling to be able to give so much money away 1221 without any palaver at all. I should like to underline the tribute that he has paid to his own staff and to the Post Office. Like many of your Lordships, I have the pleasure each year of going around to the local post office. I always feel that a little "Thank you" to the man who turns out very early every morning to see that we get our mail is something which we should say much more often, and more loudly. Of course I would not dream of trying in any way to spoil this beautiful Christmas Box which the Government are to give. But I was somewhat amazed to read—and I noticed that the Minister did not mention this—that when his right honourable friend was introducing the Bill in the other place he said: It is a great pleasure for me to bring before the House a Bill that is at once short, comprehensible and, I believe, beneficial."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, Commons, 20/ 11/72; col. 969.] I wondered why he said "I believe". I should have thought he would be quite certain that this was beneficial.
I am delighted that the noble Lord answered at least one of my questions when he said that this special payment will not be taxed, because of course that is the first thing that most citizens ask about. They always assume that anything that comes from the State must be paid for—certainly a third of it, if not more. I noticed that the additional payment goes to those who have spouses over 60 years of age. I feel rather sorry that the lady of 59 whom I know and who is married to a pensioner and is not working and draws pension through him, will not be getting anything, but I suppose the Minister will tell me that he must draw the line somewhere. Oddly enough, this is a discriminating Bill in one sense. For the first time, it discriminates in favour of age. A person has to be over a certain age.
I was rather intrigued about the widowed mother's allowance. Are there many widows over 60 who will be collecting this allowance? They may have had their children late in life, so I suppose we must assume there are some. Further, do you in fact collect unemployment benefit when you are over 60 or 65? I did not think you did: but perhaps, again, I am incorrect in this.
I am sorry that the younger widows are not going to get anything, because I feel 1222 that they are already receiving a very small sum, and this allowance would have been particularly useful to them. But on a slightly lighter note I am delighted to see that cohabitation is acceptable when you are over 60 or 65. If your Lordships remember, we could not include this provision in the Bill concerning students. It seems to be, rather as my mother constantly says, that The sweets of life come to those who have no teeth. I am very glad to see that this gift is being given, but I am afraid that in my own mind, perhaps very cynically, I cannot entirely divorce it from the idea that our entry into the European Economic Community, the freeze and several other factors are probably going to mean some pretty high prices for food after Christmas. Nevertheless, anything that comes is very welcome, and as this is the first time, I think, that pensioners have had a Christmas Box, I commend the Bill to your Lordships.

§ LORD ABERDARE
My Lords, I am very grateful indeed to the noble Baroness for her reception of this Bill. She has put her finger neatly and with very good humour on many points which arise from it. Unfortunately, a line has to be drawn, and therefore there are difficulties. The noble Baroness talked about unemployment benefit. It is of course the unemployment supplement or allowance which is concerned here.