Pension Schemes Bill

Debate between Lord Moynihan of Chelsea and Baroness Altmann

Report stage
Monday 23rd March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Altmann (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I support Amendment 164 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Palmer. I agree that there seems to be something of an injustice in relation to survivor pensions for the police. For policemen who pass away, pensions for their spouse are suspended if the spouse remarries or even moves in with a partner. Do the same provisions apply in the Armed Forces, NHS and Civil Service pension schemes, or does the deceased member’s partner not lose their pension in those schemes if they remarry or cohabit, unlike for the police?

[Lord Moynihan of Chelsea (Con)]

My Lords, I revert to the amendment from my noble friend Lady Neville-Rolfe. I thank her for this important contribution and welcome the contributions from various noble friends, the news from the noble Lord, Lord Palmer, that he would be minded to support this amendment, and even the super news from the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Brixton, that he too might support some form of inquiry.

I have been struggling for some weeks now to think how I could persuade the House that my noble friend Lady Neville-Rolfe’s amendment was crucial and urgent, and how we have got ourselves into a really dangerous situation with public sector pensions. We discussed this in Committee. The noble Viscount, Lord Thurso, gave a speech in which he seemed to believe that these pensions were necessary because pay was—I think this is the number that was given—30% below that of the private sector. As I think we know, studies show that public sector workers get about 6% more for the same job as the private sector worker before these generous pensions. Yes, a commitment was made for these pensions, but so was it made to the civil servants of Greece and of Ireland—suddenly there was no money and those commitments were reneged on. We do not want to get to that situation.

The mood of the House is always to say, “Look, these people are working hard. They need a good a retirement. There is a wonderful security in being promised a salary increasing with inflation that is about two-thirds of what they were getting before until they die. All that is wonderful, we should be generous, and it would be an injustice to take it away”, but the fact is that this House is also for scrutiny and looks at the finances of this country, not just at where we can give more money to people. I listened earlier this afternoon to people arguing for more money to be laid out. It is what we tend to be quite good at, but the fact of the matter is that we now know that there is no money, when we cannot afford to spend enough on defence and when, as my noble friend, Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell, said, we are paying out more in benefits than we are receiving in income tax. In area after area, there are calls for money that is not available, and the Government, quite rightly, reject those calls for more money to be spent. There is no more money.