Pensions Bill

The figure that the hon. Gentleman cites was considered by the Work and Pensions Committee in the last Parliament. The Minister for Pensions Reform and the hon. Member for South-West Bedfordshire (Andrew Selous), who is sitting on the Opposition Front Bench, were members of that Committee, so they will remember that we queried whether the £80,000 figure was correct. The hon. Member for Grantham and Stamford (Mr. Davies) failed to include in his calculation that someone who had managed to pay £80,000 into a fund that could be put into an annuity would have paid national insurance contributions, meaning that he or she would receive the basic state pension. The £5,000 would thus have been received on top of that pension and the person would not have lost pound for pound as a result of the pension credit. The figure of £80,000 was relevant only if a person had no other income whatsoever and qualified for the full amount of pension credit. The calculation—