§ John BarrettTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether those registering a civil partnership will be entitled to the same pension rights as married couples; and if he will make a statement. [171111]
§ Malcolm WicksProvisions in the Civil Partnership Bill would extend state pension rights and contracted-out survivor pension rights to sane-sex couples who have formed a civil partnership.
Schedule 17 of the Bill amends state pensions legislation. These amendments would extend those state pension benefits that are equally available to husbands and wives to civil partners when the Bill comes into force. Other state pension benefits would be extended to civil partners from 2010, when the conditions of entitlement for all state pension benefits will be the same for husbands and wives.
The Civil Partnership Bill contains a pensions enabling power (Clause 187) which would allow my Department to amend the contracting out rules in relation to survivor pensions. The intention is to use this power to require:
contracted-out defined benefit pension schemes to take account of periods of pensionable service after commencement of the Civil Partnership Bill for the purposes of calculating survivor pensions for civil partners; andcontracted-out defined contribution schemes to provide survivor pension for civil partners from the protected rights accrued after commencement of the Civil Partnership Bill, if the member is in a registered civil partnership at the point of retirement.