Pensions Bill

Debate between Gregg McClymont and Julie Hilling

Tuesday 29th October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Gregg McClymont]

I certainly think the Minister should undertake a review.

The perception I am talking about has developed, so let me quote something that the Minister might be aware of. I cited it a couple of years ago, but he has probably forgotten.

[Julie Hilling (Bolton West) (Lab)]

Before my hon. Friend moves on, I wonder whether he would be interested to hear the Minister’s response to my constituent Maureen Davenport. The Minister said that the maximum state pension under the new system will be “significantly lower” than under the current system. He also said:

“In some ways the new system will be less generous for those who retire after April 2016”.

That is somewhat different from the fanfare and the Government saying that these new pensions would be wonderful for everybody.

[Gregg McClymont]

I thank my hon. Friend for that powerful intervention. There has been an issue of this Government, certainly in the early stages, overselling some of the things they are doing.

The Government would be doing themselves a favour by undertaking this review, given the sense among significant groups of women that the Government do not care enough about their pension provision. In 2005, in the days when the Conservative party was still trying to say that it had changed, the Prime Minister said:

“If you put eight Conservative men round a table and ask them to discuss what should be done about pensions, you’d get some good answers…but what you are less likely to get is a powerful insight into the massive unfairness relating to women’s pensions.”

It is in that context—the sense that the Government have so far had their eye a little off the ball in respect of treating women fairly on pensions—that I intend to test the House’s opinion on our call for a review by the Government of these provisions.