Pensions Bill

My officials have suggested a series of five seminars to which we could invite Front Benchers. I am happy to strike a bargain with the hon. Gentleman: if he wants to tell us how he is going to take money off disabled people and carers, we will invite him to all five seminars; otherwise, I propose to invite him to just two. We do not believe that it would be right to place that burden on the authority. We believe that it is right to have a proper information strategy and to look at what we can do to improve people’s financial capability. We are working with Otto Thoreson and the Treasury on a study to research and design a national approach to generic financial advice, and rather than a false debate about means-testing, in which the House knows that what we are talking about is where that balance should be struck, we should have a real debate about how to make that generic information and advice work so that people can make informed decisions about their future. The debate has shown that personal accounts and automatic enrolment are of great interest to Members. Much of our debate has focused on the substance of personal accounts, and there will be opportunities to discuss that following our response to the White Paper, which will be published soon, and, subject to the will of Parliament, in legislation in the next Session. Rather than pre-empt that, I urge Members on both Front Benches not press their amendments and new clauses and instead to comfort themselves with the thought of the seminars that we will be holding between now and then so that they can table amendments in the next Session.