State Retirement Pensions

(asked on 1st September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons state pensions in Northern Ireland are devolved but a reserved matter for the Scottish Parliament; and if she will make a statement.


Answered by
Guy Opperman Portrait
Guy Opperman
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 8th September 2020

State Pension across the UK is funded from National Insurance contributions, with there being one National Insurance Fund which serves Great Britain and a separate fund serving Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Fund is administered in line with the principle of parity with Great Britain.

The Northern Ireland Act 1998 sets out reserved and excepted matters, and anything not specifically mentioned in these lists is deemed to be transferred to the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Assembly. This includes all pensions-related legislation. However, in general, social security and pensions in Northern Ireland operate in parity with Great Britain, and there are mechanisms in place to provide for liaison between the National Insurance Funds in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Recommendations on which areas of social security should be devolved to Scotland, agreed by the five main parties represented in the Scottish Parliament, were contained in the Smith Commission report published on 27 November 2014. These recommendations were taken forward and formed the basis of the Scotland Act 2016.

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