Local Government Pension Scheme (Amendment) Regulations 2008

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, has done us all a favour by bringing before us the matter of the treatment of employees who become disabled. To a certain extent, the discussion flows naturally from our earlier debate—quite coincidentally; one cannot arrange these things, but it is fortunate when such a coincidence occurs. I am even less expert than the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, but the question seems to me to be how you define disability. The noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, has a real concern there, especially because, if I correctly understand his interpretation of the regulations, that assessment has to be made on day one. An assessment of disability must be questionable at some point in the future. At that point, there must be a thorough and proper review. That is the first thing. The second thing that causes concern is the definition of ““proper employment”” for a person who has suffered disability. It is all very well to say that a man is capable of working in a call centre, but that presumes that there is somewhere such as a call centre for him to work in. He may be technically defined as capable of employment in certain circumstances when in fact there is no suitable employment. I would like some explanation from the Minister of how that problem may be dealt with. In my experience, most people would prefer to be employed than not, but if you are in this semi-disabled category—if I may put it in that way—where you can do some forms of work but not others, access to suitable forms of work is critical. I would like some assurance from the Minister that that will be properly dealt with. Having said all that, I think that the circumstances give an opportunity to review the general position of the local government pension scheme, because local government employees, on the whole, do remarkably well out of it. The scheme is still running according to historic definitions of when one is eligible to draw a pension, when we are looking at an extended working life for the vast bulk of employees who will be eligible for the state pension scheme. There is no doubt that, at some point, the local government pension scheme will have to be looked at in the context of people’s greater expectation of life and—dare I say it?—greater capacity to continue working beyond pension age. I am not sure how many of us here today are in that category, but I suspect that quite a number of us are. I merely make that point. The pension scheme costs £177 per household, annually, across the country. People living ordinary lives, particularly if their income has become squeezed by developments beyond their control—and, at present, beyond the control of the Government—will wonder about that if we do not have a scheme that is moving in the same direction as pensions generally. That is not specifically what these regulations are about, but since the opportunity is here, I mention that background reality. I have no doubt that there will come a time when the department, the Local Government Association and employees will be obliged to look at that much wider and more significant issue.