§ Dr. Edmund Marshallasked the Secretary of State for Social Services why, under present legislation, a fully insured person who continues in employment after retirement age does not receive earnings-related supplement to sickness benefit.
§ Mr. OrmeSickness and unemployment benefit for a person over pension age has always been payable at a rate equivalent to the flat-rate retirement pension which the person would have received if he or she had retired at minimum pensionable age. The object has been to avoid giving an incentive to people who had in fact retired to postpone their formal retirement in order to receive a benefit which, particularly since the introduction of earnings-related supplement, might be higher than their pension. The fact that the basic retirement pension is now higher than flat-rate sickness or unemployment benefit does, however, offset the loss of earnings-related supplement to some extent. Under the new pension provisions a person over minimum pensionable age who does not retire will not be liable to pay earnings-related contributions after April 1978, and the rate of sickness benefit payable will take account of any additional pension he has earned on top of the basic pension.