Commentary on Sections Miscellaneous Section 299: Claims for certain benefits following termination of reciprocal agreement with Australia
1270.This section is needed following the termination of the Social Security Agreement between the United Kingdom and Australia with effect from 1st March 2001. The Agreement is set out in Schedule 1 to the Social Security (Australia) Order 1992. The Agreement provided that, where people living permanently in the United Kingdom had previously lived in Australia, their Australian residence counted as periods for which Class 3 National Insurance contributions had been paid for the purpose of determining their entitlement to certain UK benefits. For example, such periods of residence in Australia could help a person to qualify for a basic retirement pension or enhance the rate of basic retirement pension to which they were entitled. The Agreement made reciprocal provision for people living permanently in Australia who had previously lived in the United Kingdom.
1271.The Agreement protected the position of those people who were receiving benefits on the basis of the Agreement on 28th February 2001 or who had made a claim for benefits on or before that date on that basis where entitlement began on or before that date (subsection (8)). However, the Agreement did not protect the position of those people who had lived in Australia but who had not made a claim for benefits by 1st March 2001, or who had made a claim for benefits before that date but entitlement started on or after that date. The Department for Work and Pensions, with Treasury approval and having notified Parliament, protected the position of these people by paying certain benefits to them on an extra-statutory basis.
1272.Upon Royal Assent this section provides that, for the purposes of claims for basic retirement pension, widow’s benefits and bereavement benefits made after the termination of the Agreement, certain provisions of the Agreement are treated as continuing in force with modifications. Any week of residence in Australia before 6th April 2001 (and forming part of a period of residence beginning before 1st March 2001) continues to be treated as a week of residence in the United Kingdom during which a voluntary Class 3 National Insurance contribution has been paid. This regularises the statutory basis for the payments which have been made under the extra-statutory scheme (subsection (7)).
1273.Where reciprocal agreements are modified to take account of changes in UK legislation, there is a power to modify UK legislation as it applies to cases affected by the reciprocal agreements (under the Social Security Administration Act 1992 and the Northern Ireland equivalent). Subsection (4) enables this power to be exercised in relation to the provisions of the Agreement with Australia which are continued in force by this section.