Oral Answers to Questions

Steve Webb Excerpts

Monday 10th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Paul Uppal (Wolverhampton South West) (Con)]

3. What steps he is taking to increase take-up of workplace pensions.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb)]

Automatic enrolment was introduced in October and the number of workers saving into a pension in some of Britain’s largest companies has already increased. In steady state, we expect 6 million to 9 million people to be newly saving, or saving more. To support this, we are running a national communications campaign, including TV adverts targeting those least likely to be saving in a pension.

[Paul Uppal]

It is becoming increasingly apparent that we on the Government Benches are on the side of those who strive and work hard in society. In that vein, how can my constituents in Wolverhampton South West who are saving for the future have access to enrolment to high-quality pension funds?

[Steve Webb]

Through the creation of the National Employment Savings Trust we have ensured that there is a benchmark of low-cost, high-quality pension provision, which is driving down costs across the market. We need to go further and we are looking at whether the role of NEST can be expanded. We are also driving through transparency on charges, so that firms and employees can see what they are paying for and can pay less over time.

[Mr Frank Field (Birkenhead) (Lab)]

Would not one good test of who is on the side of the shirkers or the strivers be a state pension that guaranteed that people were taken off the means test, so it would be safe to save through companies? Will the pensions Minister give us a date for when we will see the White Paper?

[Steve Webb]

The right hon. Gentleman will have heard the Chancellor only last Thursday reaffirm our commitment to state pension reform, and to do exactly that—to ensure that people who work hard and save hard are clear of means testing. The White Paper is at an advanced stage.

[Mr Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) (Con)]

Will the Minister reassure the House that the Government will not repeat the measures introduced in 1997 by the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown), which undermined the basis of work-based pensions? Does the Minister understand why the right hon. Gentleman is so often absent, which is doubtless due to his embarrassment about that assault on security?

[Steve Webb]

My hon. Friend is right. That was one of several measures that took money out of final salary pension schemes, which, given they were the highest-quality schemes available, was no way to show commitment to quality pension provision.

[Gregg McClymont (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (Lab)]

I would have thought that Conservatives had more respect for the office of Prime Minister, Mr Speaker.

Do the Government have plans to make the rising state pension age fairer for those who have worked in manual occupations their whole life and who will tend not to have the same life expectancy? How do the Government plan to make the state pension age fair across all occupations?

[Steve Webb]

I am interested in that point—it is one that the hon. Gentleman’s late right hon. Friend, Malcolm Wicks, used to raise regularly—and we are always interested in looking at ideas on it. Our proposal is that the state pension age would be more automatically linked to the general improvement in longevity that has applied across the social scale. He is right that there remain significant differences, but a rising tide—as it were—is lifting all boats.

[Mr Peter Hain (Neath) (Lab)]

4. What assessment he has made of the effect of changes to housing benefit rules on married disabled people living in specially adapted two-bedroom properties.

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[Mr David Hanson (Delyn) (Lab)]

9. What discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on the implications of his proposed changes to housing benefit.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb)]

My noble Friend the Minister for Welfare Reform has met Welsh Ministers on several occasions to discuss welfare reform, including changes to housing benefit, and he maintains regular correspondence with them. In addition, officials from the Welsh Government are represented on a number of working groups relating to welfare reform.

[Mr Hanson]

Does the Minister accept that the 40,000 people in Wales who will be hit by the bedroom tax changes to housing benefit are either unemployed and long-term unemployed or, very often, are in work on low incomes? What advice would he as a Liberal Democrat offer? Would he encourage them to seek higher-paid jobs, to give up their homes or to take a massive cut in their income?

[Steve Webb]

The impact of the social housing under-occupation measure is lower in Wales on average than it is in the rest of the United Kingdom. A range of options is open to those who face a shortfall. As the Minister with responsibility for disabilities, my hon. Friend the Member for Wirral West (Esther McVey) said, one of them arises when a set of people living in over-occupied accommodation need to move somewhere larger. Many social landlords are getting to know their tenants and their pattern of need, better juggling the housing stock, which is vital and to the benefit of all our constituents.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

10. Whether it is his policy that people with cystic fibrosis should be eligible for disability living allowance.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jim Sheridan (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State will be aware of the ever-increasing number of workplace pensions that are wound up in mergers and takeovers, as happened at Whitbread where former employees have lost their pensions. Will he review the legislation in order properly to protect people’s pensions on mergers and takeovers?

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb)]

We are obviously concerned when anybody does not get the pension they were expecting. The regulator has powers where corporate restructuring has been designed to avoid pension liabilities. If the hon. Gentleman gives me more details of the case, I will be happy to look into it.

[Mike Freer (Finchley and Golders Green) (Con)]

T10. People with HIV report poor levels of understanding of their condition by Atos assessors. This may be because the guidance is outdated and lacks information on living with HIV. Will Ministers be monitoring the guidance issued on such conditions?

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

The hon. Member for North Devon (Sir Nick Harvey) was right to draw attention to the rising tide of real concern and anxiety among those threatened by the bedroom tax. How many households will be directly affected by the bedroom tax?

[Steve Webb]

We published a full impact assessment as part of the Welfare Reform Act 2012, which deals with this and also breaks it down on a regional level, so the figures are already available to the House.