Oral Answers to Questions

Gordon Birtwistle Excerpts
Monday 11th March 2013

(11 years, 9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Steve Webb Portrait Steve Webb
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I am looking forward to two hours with the Select Committee this afternoon after this warm-up. My hon. Friend is absolutely right, in that some of the women in the group we are talking about will miss out on nearly £20,000 of pension if they were to be treated the same as a man born on the same day. I think that very few of them would think that a good deal.

Gordon Birtwistle Portrait Gordon Birtwistle (Burnley) (LD)
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Does my hon. Friend agree that the reforms to the state pension will be advantageous to women in the future?

Steve Webb Portrait Steve Webb
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Absolutely. The process of state pension reform was happening at a glacial pace and equality between men and women was many decades away. We have brought that equality forward and men and women on both sides of the House should welcome that fact.