§ Mr. DavidsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what assessment he has made of the impact of changes to the regulations governing inherited SERPS. [156572]
§ Mr. RookerThe Social Security (Inherited SERPS) Regulations 2001 were made on 20 March 2001 and come into force on 6 October 2002.
The effect of these Regulations will be to provide protection for the spouses of people who reach State pension age between 6 October 2002 and 5 October 2010, in recognition of the fact that the amount someone needs to save to make up for the reduction to 50 per cent. inheritance increases the closer they are to pension age. The amount of SERPS that the surviving spouse can inherit will be reduced from a maximum of 100 per cent. to a maximum of 50 per cent., but on a sliding scale.
This is in addition to the protection for the spouses of existing pensioners or of people due to reach State pension age by 5 October 2002.
The overall effect of the changes will be to prevent the cliff edge effect of the original proposals.