§ Mr. David Steelasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will reconsider the entitlement of persons over pensionable age to be included in an earnings-related supplement to the sickness benefit scheme.
§ Mr. MeacherThe traditional argument for the present long-standing arrangements, whereby the short-term benefit rate after pensionable age is tied to the pension rate, has been the need to avoid a situation in which people who are in fact retired have an incentive to make their claims on the basis that they are sick, so as to be able to receive a higher benefit. The pension rate may in fact be more favourable than the rate of sickness benefit which would otherwise be payable, and the new earnings-related pension scheme will, when it comes into operation, substantially increase the likelihood of this. Any more radical change would have to be considered in the light of the availability of resources and of competing priorities.