Commentary on Sections Part 1 – Social Security Section 27: State pension credit: pilot schemes
161.This section inserts new section 18A into the State Pension Credit Act 2002. It makes provision to pilot, for a period of up to twelve months, ways in which state pension credit entitlement may be calculated and paid in order to increase the numbers of eligible persons receiving benefit.
162.To achieve this, the section allows regulations to be made which would permit the payment of state pension credit without a claim being made and with modified rules concerning how the entitlement is determined.
163.Subsection (3) specifies that these regulations can be made in order to ascertain whether they would lead to more people who may be entitled to it claiming state pension credit, or would make it more likely that people who are entitled to state pension credit will receive it.
164.Subsections (5) and (6) allow for the normal rules relating to the need for a claim, and the detailed rules about the calculation of entitlement to be modified for the purposes of the pilot.
165.Subsection (7) provides that this does not affect a person’s entitlement to other benefits, such as housing benefit, or a person’s tax liabilities.
166.Subsection (8) allows regulations to specify who the pilot applies to.
167.To ensure people are not disadvantaged by the pilot coming to an end, subsection (9) makes provision to allow transitional arrangements to be made.