72. The State Pension Credit Act (Northern Ireland) 2002 is amended as follows.
73. In section 3 (savings credit), for subsection (1) substitute—
“(1) The first of the conditions mentioned in section 1(2)(c)(ii) is that the claimant—
(a)has attained pensionable age before 6 April 2016 and has attained the age of 65 (before, on or after that date), or
(b)is a member of a couple, the other member of which falls within paragraph (a).”.
74. After that section insert—
(1) Regulations may provide that, in prescribed cases, a person who is a member of a mixed-age couple is not entitled to a savings credit.
(2) For example, the regulations could provide that a member of a mixed-age couple is not entitled to a savings credit unless—
(a)the person has been awarded a savings credit with effect from a day before 6 April 2016 and was entitled to a savings credit immediately before that date, and
(b)the person remained entitled to state pension credit at all times since the beginning of 6 April 2016.
(3) In this section “mixed-age couple” means a couple (whenever formed) one member of which had attained pensionable age before 6 April 2016 and the other had not.”.
75. In Schedule 1 to the Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 2008, omit paragraph 41.