Oral Answers to Questions

Ian Blackford Excerpts

Monday 9th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Vara]

The hon. Gentleman raises a good point about a particularly important sector of our economy, and we will certainly look at anything put forward. I emphasise that the Government are keen to ensure that people, including the self-employed, think about and prepare for a better future in terms of their pension.

[Ian Blackford (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (SNP)]

Pension saving has been undermined by the new lifetime ISA, a new gimmick from the Chancellor, which will promote ISA saving from taxed income over pension saving from pre-tax income—in other words, it is a convenient tool to increase tax receipts today. No employee will be better off saving into an ISA than through workplace pension saving. The Association of British Insurers has forecast that someone saving 4% of an income of £25,000 in an ISA would be £53,000 worse off by age 60. Will the Minister tell the Chancellor to stop his gimmicks, stop this nonsense and get back to pension savings? We need no more con tricks from this Government.

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The eloquence might be worthy of Demosthenes, but I think the length would not. Questions must be shorter.