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Financial Assistance Scheme Regulations 2005

I thank noble Lords for those detailed comments and questions, to which I shall endeavour to respond to the best of my ability. I shall start with the question that was raised by the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, in relation to women and the decision that payments should commence at the age of 65. The simple answer is that fairly arbitrary limits have had to be put on this scheme. We are talking about a limited budget funded by the taxpayer and we have had to target it as fairly and effectively as possible through one single set of rules. Inevitably, some decisions have had to be made that might be described as arbitrary. I am afraid that there is no running away from that. It is the same as the issue of three years off the normal retirement age also applying and the de minimis rule—the £12,000 cap. I am sure that if I had come with different figures, noble Lords would already have raised those questions. There is no running away from the fact that, while I am delighted that the FAS has been established, there will inevitably be limits to what it can achieve.