Pensions Bill

I promise to be brief; otherwise my voice might give out. I greatly welcome the Bill, particularly the measures that will benefit women and carers. The reduction of the number of qualifying years to 30, and the introduction of weekly credits in place of the current home responsibilities protection, will increase the percentage of women who will be entitled to a full basic state pension. Of course, we should recognise that home responsibilities protection already brings benefits to many women, even though it is more restrictive than the proposed credit system. However, I will raise one problem with HRP that I hope will be avoided under the new credit system, and I hope that Ministers will consider how those affected by the problem can be helped. In August 2005, I was contacted by my constituents, Mr. and Mrs. Cartwright, who discovered when Mrs. Cartwright received a state pension forecast that she had not been awarded home responsibilities protection. When my constituents questioned that, they discovered that their child benefit, which they had claimed since 1984, was deemed to have been paid to Mr. Cartwright, even though it was paid into their joint bank account. When they applied for child benefit, Mr. Cartwright’s name was put first on the application form, for no reason other than that his name appeared first on the bank account. He was therefore treated as the recipient of child benefit, and that qualified him for HRP. I believe that that may be a significant problem now that child benefit is paid into bank accounts. It would never have arisen under the old system of payment books, in which it was clear that it was the mother who received the benefit. Mr. and Mrs. Cartwright should have received form CH718 for Mrs. Cartwright to complete, which would allow her to give her permission for Mr. Cartwright to receive child benefit and therefore the HRP. My constituents do not believe that they ever received that form, and the Child Benefit Office is unable to provide copies of returned forms. The onus is on the claimant to prove that they never received the forms, which is impossible after 20 years. There seems to be confusion on that point. My recent inquiries revealed that the rule is that if no completed CH718 form is received, the claim from the husband should be disallowed. However, while making representations in 2005, a member of my staff was told that although the forms are sent out, if they are not returned, it is assumed that the claimant received them, and that the first named person on the form is accepted. Whatever happened regarding the form more than 20 years ago, it is clear that no one would knowingly waive their right to home responsibilities protection when they had been caring for their children and not working. My constituents were certainly not aware of the implication of putting the husband’s name on the claim form and the effect on the entitlement to HRP. It is difficult to find out how many people may be affected by the problem, and it is probably only when people draw close to retirement age and receive a pension forecast that we will know the true extent of the problem. Certainly, both my assistant and my constituents have been told by the National Insurance Contributions Office that it knows of many such complaints. The Pensions Advisory Service produced a document entitled ““Report on Women and Pensions Helpline””, which was the result of a pilot helpline available from 18 October to 10 December 2004. The report states:"““A recurring comment from many callers was that they were unaware of, or confused by, HRP and how it may apply to them.””" It says:"““Particularly relevant for couples, is the fact that HRP is only automatic when the child benefit is being paid to the non-working partner. Some enquiries came from individuals where the child benefit was being paid to the working partner rather than the partner who had given up work or was working reduced hours to look after the couple’s children. We were able to advise why they should be changing the payee details for the child benefit.””" I recently contacted the Pensions Advisory Service and was told that about 500 calls to the helpline concerned the subject of HRP, and the main problem was lack of understanding of how the system works. The issue highlighted in the report of the ““wrong”” partner receiving child benefit mainly concerned cases in which men stayed at home to care for the children, and due to ignorance of how the system works, their child benefit was paid to the mother, even though she was the working partner. As a result, the stay-at-home husband did not qualify for HRP. Whether it is fathers losing out on HRP because they stay at home to care for their children, or mothers such as Mrs. Cartwright missing out because the husband’s name was inadvertently put on the form first, the situation is clearly ridiculous. No one would willingly lose some £32 per week in pension entitlement. In such cases, it should be reasonably easy to establish that the working parent has paid tax and national insurance during the years in which they were eligible for HRP, whereas their partner has not. It would therefore seem possible to transfer the right to HRP in those circumstances. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Minister for Pensions Reform for meeting me to discuss my constituents’ case. I hope that amendments to the Bill will be considered, so that we can address the problem that affected Mr. and Mrs. Cartwright and, I believe, many more people throughout the country.