Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of raising the income tax threshold to £20,000 for pensioners.

The Government is committed to making sure older people can live with the dignity and respect they deserve in retirement. The State Pension is the foundation of the support available to them. Over the course of this Parliament, the yearly amount of the full new State Pension is currently projected to go up by around £1,900 based on the Office for Budget Responsibility's latest forecast.

The Government is committed to keeping people’s taxes as low as possible while ensuring fiscal responsibility. Raising the personal allowance to £20,000 for all taxpayers would cost more than £50bn, roughly equal to the UK defence budget.