The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb)
I shall today table Government amendments to the Pensions Bill 2011, including one that caps the maximum increase in women’s state pension age at 18 months, relative to the legislated timetable.
The amendment to clause 1 will ameliorate the increase in state pension age for around 245,000 women and 240,000 men and reduce total savings from the increase to 66 by around £1.1 billion (in 2011-12 prices). It maintains our policy to equalise the state pension age for men and women in 2018 and increase to 66 by 2020.
The Government will also table three other amendments to the Pensions Bill 2011. These amendments respond to a recent judgment of the Supreme Court and protect members of pension schemes from unclear or unfair pension saving charges.
The first amendment clarifies what is meant by a “money purchase benefit”, to ensure scheme members are protected appropriately. The second extends an existing reserve power to cap charges for deferred members, which would enable Government to protect all scheme members from high charges, not just active members. The third is a technical amendment to protect individuals who become automatically enrolled into a personal pension scheme when their employer closes a defined benefit or hybrid scheme to new members.