Pensions Strategy

Alison Seabeck Excerpts

Thursday 20th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Steve Webb]

Certainly. My understanding is that National Savings and Investments will bring forward pensioner bonds next January. The Chancellor has indicated that the gross interest rate will be about 2.8% for a one-year bond and about 4% for a three-year bond, but that will be reviewed later in the year. It depends on market movements between now and then, but it is designed to be a market-leading rate to recognise that people who have worked hard and saved hard should get a decent return on their money.

[Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab)]

It is interesting that the consultation is coming after the facts in this case. Will the Minister place in the Library a list of all the people he consulted prior to the announcements today and yesterday, as well as the risk assessment of where the Treasury will benefit or lose out from the proposal and, importantly, of the impact on women, because I suspect that women will yet again be net losers?

[Steve Webb]

There is a risk of being rather patronising to women in saying that giving them new freedoms will somehow result in their losing out. The hon. Lady will have seen that the markets moved following the announcement yesterday, so there is a sense in which such decisions have to be made through a confidential process. We are in constant dialogue with trade bodies and providers, and we will continue to be so. It is a three-month consultation, so we want to ensure that we get it right. On the principle of giving people freedom, she is shaking her head; I think that Labour Front Benchers might support it, but I really cannot tell.