§ 92. Mr. Jegerasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance what arrangements have been made to pay the graduated pension to foreign nationals living abroad who worked temporarily in Great Britain and from whose earnings contributions were deducted to an amount which qualified for 6d. or 1s. per week pension.
§ Mrs. ThatcherThere are no special arrangements for people living abroad, whether they are British or foreign. Where a flat-rate pension is payable, any graduated benefit is added to the pension and paid in the usual way. Where there is no flat-rate pension and the weekly graduated benefit amounts to 2s. 6d. or less, the insured person can receive a lump sum.
§ 93. Mr. Jegerasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance in which of his Department's publications devoted to explaining the graduated pension scheme it is made clear that contributors who pay a total amount which is less than one unit do not qualify for an addition to their basic pension and thus forfeit their contributions.
§ Mr. WoodIn fact, any odd half unit or more of graduated contributions counts as a whole unit, and this is explained in the leaflets issued by my Department about graduated pensions.