---

Finance Bill

Before the Minister rises, I wish to make a brief contribution about one of the groups that is losing out from this package—people in the 60 to 64 age bracket. My contribution is inspired, first, by the fact that this group has been in contact with me and with many other hon. Members in largish numbers, and, secondly, by what the right hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field) said. There is a sense that the House is being asked to accept a pig in a poke for this group and that what those constituents want, above all, is certainty. I do not believe that that certainty has so far been provided. I raise the issue of women in the 60 to 64 bracket, in particular, because one of them contacted me having heard the Prime Minister give an interview in which he said that people should not worry because pensioners have been compensated. This lady said, ““Last time I looked I was a pensioner, but I am losing out by more than £200 a year””. That is because women in that age bracket, although pensioners, do not qualify for the pensioner tax allowance. Such people have contacted me and other hon. Members in large numbers. The first question is: what compensation can such people expect to receive? Amendment No. 19 refers to the compensation package and suggests that the 10p rate is reversed unless we are happy with the compensation package. I am not convinced that we will get the very precise answers that women in the 60 to 64 age group want—I shall shut up and sit down shortly so that the Minister can tell us her response. When I intervened on the right hon. Member for Birkenhead, I asked what these people will get. What can they expect, supposing that they have lost up to £200 net of other changes? If I understood him rightly, he said that they could expect average compensation. If the group, on average, has lost £100, I take his understanding of what he has been promised to mean that the people involved will get £100. If, for the sake of argument, there were 300,000 losers in this age group, half would still gain and half would lose. Clearly people would lose less than they would otherwise have done, but there would still be a significant number of losers. The first point is, thus, that women who have read in the press that the Government will compensate them might discover, at some point, that the Government will not compensate them in full—they may compensate people in part at some point. The second question is: when will such people be compensated? This group ought to be the most straightforward of all to deal with, because if the winter fuel payment mechanism is used, that is probably one of the simplest things that could be done. If we have to wait until the pre-Budget statement, which is traditionally made in November, and then, presumably, for legislation, because we will need to define, in a new way, a very specific group, people will not get their money until 2009. The reason why the winter fuel payment has a September cut-off date is that it takes three months to give everybody the money. Let us assume that the pre-Budget statement is made in November, legislation is made over Christmas and the new year. If we add three months on top of that, it could be well over a year before those women receive partial compensation. That is not what they will have perceived they were going to receive.