Social Security (Contributions) (Amendment No. 2) Regulations 2022

Baroness Kramer Excerpts

Monday 28th March 2022 Grand Committee

[Lord Jones (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her cogent exposition and acknowledge the expertise of my noble friend Lord Davies. I will be very brief.

The Explanatory Note refers, in relation to Regulation 2, to

“certain married women and widows”.

What is the estimate of how many married women and widows these regulations impact upon?

My second question is that, since we read in the Explanatory Memorandum that these regulations refer to the United Kingdom, can the numbers of the people affected be broken down to matters concerning England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?

Finally, the Explanatory Memorandum refers in paragraph 13 to small businesses. Is the Minister able to say what consultation there has been with the business community? For example, was the Federation of Small Businesses involved in the consultation, should it have taken place? If I have asked a question that it is not possible to answer now, the Minister might offer to write.

[Baroness Kramer (LD)]

My Lords, my expertise in the field of pensions is absolutely de minimis, so my questions may sound very basic. I am not going to raise any particular objection to this SI, but can the Minister explain to us what impact the increase in the threshold amount, which will come in later this week, will have on the women who are impacted by this statutory instrument? I am struggling to see how the two pieces interweave, and it might be quite helpful to understand the overall picture—I would appreciate that.