---

Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 4) Regulations 2008

My Lords, the noble Baroness has raised an important issue. I am saddened by the Government’s decision to reduce the time that people have to backdate their claims for pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit from 12 months to three months. I am particularly worried about the situation of pensioners in this respect. It is disturbing for two reasons. First, the Government recently changed their policy on pensions to allow women to buy back more years than was previously the case, recognising that many women’s lives, with years spent caring for children or other relatives, meant that they did not have an opportunity to accumulate an adequate pension entitlement without that move. That was a sensitive and humanitarian decision affecting many people who would otherwise have had to manage for years on too little to have an acceptable standard of living. Secondly, I am saddened because we are in a period when people on low incomes are among those most at risk of being hit by the economic slowdown. Many elderly people have been able to carry out urgent repairs or adaptations to their homes resulting from needs that have often been exacerbated by the fact that they have not received entitlements when they were due. Many have paid off debts with these backdated payments and we know the worry that debt leads to for most older people in this country. The Government’s rather rigid position of insisting on savings being made elsewhere in the benefits system before consideration can be given to this would mean that other low-income people would need to lose benefits to help those who needed access to these funds. We know that many old people will not seek help until things are really bad and that, without backdating, they will face real hardship. As it is, the take-up rate of benefits among pensioners is abysmally low at a time of high inflation and rocketing prices of essentials such as gas and electricity. As we face a difficult winter, it is hard to understand why the Government cannot rethink, as the noble Baroness said, even at this late stage, a decision that will hurt some of the most vulnerable people among our population.