State Pension Reform
Debate between Steve Webb and Lord Barwell(11 years, 7 months ago)
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Steve Webb
My hon. Friend is quite right. The nightmare scenario under automatic enrolment would be people opening their newspapers and reading, “Don’t bother to save small amounts of money; the Government will just claw it back.” We are confident that by sorting out the state pension we will not only deal with the position of people at the bottom of the pile, but will make auto-enrolment the success that we all want it to be.
Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) (Con)
I congratulate the Minister, who has demonstrated his mastery of a highly complex subject. In particular, I warmly welcome the decision to reduce means-testing significantly. Under this Government—unlike the last one—those of my constituents who put small sums away for their retirement will not find themselves little better off than those who do not save.
Steve Webb
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his generous comments. Just as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is trying to make work pay through the universal credit, we want to make savings pay through the single-tier pension. I believe that if we can do both those things, we shall have done a good and important job.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Steve Webb and Lord Barwell(11 years, 9 months ago)
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Steve Webb
Let me clarify the specific point. The statement by Aviva is that
“its schemes for automatic enrolment will have an average total product charge of less than 1%... It will not allow auto-enrolment into…older-style schemes.”
On the charge cap, the danger of the hon. Gentleman’s idea of having, say, a 1% across-the-board cap is that someone can tick the box with 0.99%. Actually, many in the market will offer below that. There is a danger that people will be misled if they are just below the cap, when many lower prices are available in the market.
Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) (Con)
15. What recent assessment he has made of the level of employment.