§ Mr. Kennedyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether, pursuant to the reply which he gave to the hon. Member for Brent, South (Mr. Pavitt) on 9 April, Official Report, columns 118–19, he will estimate the total cost of terminating the employment of the remaining 33 staff, at the earliest possible date, who were re-employed after having elected to take advantage of the premature retirement scheme.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeI do not expect any additional costs to arise. The reason for termination is not redundancy and there can be no payment of redundancy compensation for the period of further employment. Even where the individual has paid further superannuation contributions, and that will by no means always be the case, these contributions go first to offsetting the compensation element of the earlier award and only when that is completely wiped out would additional pension benefits be earned. Even if they did earn additional benefits these would not be payable before the individual's normal retirement age.