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Pensions Bill

With the force of argument that has been made, one will continue to reflect on this matter. However, unless I am missing the point, it is not right to say that grandparents are discriminated against in these provisions in comparison with non-grandparents. They are in exactly the same position. To recap on the journey that grandparents could take—even under the scenario that the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, outlined, which I do understand—a grandparent would presumably have the opportunity to start off in work at the start of their lives. They may possibly give up work when they have children, but then be entitled to the credit for 12 years—so there are two tranches of contribution towards the basic state pension. Even if for the rest of their life they were involved in caring for children in a way that did not produce any credits for them, under the provisions, they could buy the final six years—or any of those six years over that period. If you top that up—and those would probably be fairly unusual circumstances—quite a significant tranche of basic state pension would be available because of that. We need to keep this in context. I shall continue to reflect on the matter.