§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will introduce legislation for a scheme whereby persons who look after elderly or handicapped dependants should be credited with Class 1 National Insurance contributions so that their retirement pension is not reduced by the fact that they have not been in contributory employment.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisThe Social Security Act 1975 provides for the introduction 221W of an invalid care allowance for those, mainly single women but also some men, who cannot go out to work because they have to care for severely disabled relatives receiving attendance allowance. We hope to bring the invalid care allowance into payment in 1976–7 and to provide that beneficiaries will ordinarily be credited with Class 1 contributions while receiving the allowance. From 1978, when the "home responsibility" provision of the Social Security Pensions Act comes into operation, periods when people have to stay at home to look after dependants but do not qualify for invalid care allowance may be ignored in calculating their entitlement to pension. As a result of both these important new provisions, future gaps in payment of contributions in these circumstances will not have the same adverse effects on pension entitlement that such gaps have had in the past.