State Pension Reform

Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford Excerpts

Monday 14th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Steve Webb]

I think I have already dealt with that point. Pension ages are changing, and they will not be the same for men and women until 2018. If we have a system based on pension age, it will be different for men and women by definition until they are equalised. It seems to me that the only way to run a system is to base it on people’s actual state pension age—rather than have an actual state pension age and then bring single tier in on a different day for a set of people born in different periods. That would introduce extra complexity, which we are trying to stop.

[Nicola Blackwood (Oxford West and Abingdon) (Con)]

I welcome this statement, as the problems of complexity and inequality that have been identified are all too familiar to my constituents, and they have without doubt undermined this country’s savings culture. Will the Minister explain, however, how the new proposals would affect carers in my constituency? Can he guarantee that his commitment to simplicity would go all the way down to user level?

[Steve Webb]

I am grateful. Carers receive the carer’s allowance, and there are other sorts of carer’s credits. Carers will thus end up with credits for the full £144—or whatever the final rate ends up being—so this has the potential to be a significant benefit to them. The hon. Lady is absolutely right that it is all very well for us to talk about simplicity, but people need to experience simplicity. That is why the White Paper provides an example of a pension statement. It is a single piece of paper saying, “You have built this amount up; if you do this many more years, you will get the full pension.” Everybody will know the rate: it will be a standard figure, and much harder for future Governments to tinker with.