Mr. Tim Duggan:

Any person currently in receipt of a payment under the widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's pension scheme will not lose their entitlement. It is proposed to insert the saver clause, as I said in my opening statement, into the legislation for anyone affected by the rule changes who is already in receipt of a payment. Nobody who is currently in receipt of a payment will lose one. That is important to note.

I am not at all sure why it is being suggested that there is a differential in the treatment of children across various set-ups. Our view is that we are trying to bring in equality of treatment regardless of familial arrangements. We can talk that through in some detail if needs be. It is not clear to me why that suggestion is being made.

The issue of divorcees was noted by the Supreme Court as an anomaly. A person who is no longer married to somebody and is not in a relationship with that person may have no involvement with them of any kind whatsoever. The person may not have seen the other for 20 years, yet when one person dies, the other person gets a pension. That is anomalous in the view of the Supreme Court. It is anomalous because the person in receipt of the pension is not a widow or a widower of that person because they had divorced. That created a problem or tension that the Supreme Court felt needed to be addressed. It was part of the consideration the court used in reaching its judgment.