§ Mr. Chris SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of the cost to public funds of commencing payment of a retirement pension on the day of a pensioner's 65th birthday. [18300]
§ Mr. HealdI refer the hon. Member to the reply that I gave him on 19 March,Official Report, column 181.
§ Sir Andrew BowdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the number of pensioners who do not take up their entitlement to income support who also do not take up their entitlement to(a) housing benefit and (b) council tax benefit. [23967]
§ Mr. HealdI refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave him on 11 January,Official Report, column 325.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will assess the advantage of extending to married couples in divorce proceedings the same rules for division of pension rights as apply in the case of civil servants wishing to allocate part of their pension to their wives; and if he will list the rules applying to civil servants. [22957]
§ Mr. HealdThe provisions governing the allocation of civil service pensions are contained in section 5 of, and appendix 8 to, the rules of the principal civil service pension scheme.
The Government have announced their commitment to the principle of pension splitting on divorce. Options for dealing with the treatment of pensions on divorce will be dealt with in the Green Paper that we intend publishing in the summer.
§ Mr. DenhamTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what plans he has, in what time scale, to make regulations under section 149 of the Pensions Act 1995 to extend to occupational pension schemes his proposals for contracted-out money purchase payment schemes;[23128]
(2) by what date he will make regulations under section 149 of the Pensions Act 1995 to enable occupational pension schemes to be used for contracting out on a contracted out mixed benefits scheme. [23129]
§ Mr. HealdWe aim to lay regulations under section 149 of the Pensions Act 1995 before the summer parliamentary recess. From 6 April 1997 the intention is that newly contracted-out schemes will be able to contract out on a salary-related basis in respect of some members and a money purchase basis in respect of others. Existing contracted-out salary-related schemes will be able to change to contracted-out money purchase status without having to discharge their liabilities to provide salary-related benefits in respect of members' accrued rights. They will also be able to provide contracted-out76W money purchase benefits for some members and salary-related rights for others. Existing contracted-out money purchase schemes will be able to take advantage of the new flexibilities from April 1998. All these schemes will be known as contracted-out mixed benefit schemes or COMBS.