Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Steve Webb and Gavin Williamson

Monday 20th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson (South Staffordshire) (Con)]

9. What steps he is taking to help pensioners.

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

Even where we have had to take difficult decisions on welfare spending, we have systematically protected pensioners from the impacts of changes. Indeed, we have gone further: we have permanently increased the cold weather payment to £25, and the basic state pension is now a higher share of average earnings than at any time in the past 20 years.

[Gavin Williamson]

Unlike the Opposition, we on this side of the House recognise that it is not right to increase basic state pensions by 75p: we give proper increases. What more is the Minister doing to ensure that retirement incomes continue to rise in the future?

[Steve Webb]

As my hon. Friend knows, our goal is to have a retirement income based on the foundation of a simple, single, decent state pension—the legislation on this was announced in the Queen’s Speech—complemented by automatic enrolment into a workplace pension, so people have a pension based on their national insurance and a pension of their own with a contribution from both the employer and the taxpayer. That is a good combination to build on.