Pensions Bill

moved Amendment No. 1: 1: Clause 1, page 1, line 13, leave out ““2010”” and insert ““2008”” The noble Lord said: Here we are again at the Committee stage of a pensions Bill. I welcome the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, who, with me, was a veteran of the 2004 Bill. I speak as a player in an enthusiastic and talented string quartet that consists of my noble friends Lady Thomas, Lord Kirkwood and Lord Addington. We on these Benches would have preferred these proceedings to have taken place in Grand Committee. This Bill will raise strong emotions and involve Divisions, but given that much technical work is needed, a Grand Committee would be a better forum for achieving consensus and for probing, particularly due to the way that the committee rooms are laid out. The Committee stage of the previous Pensions Bill was taken off the Floor of the House. It would have been easier to consider this Bill in that way because officials would have been able to be there with the Minister and many issues might have been resolved immediately, rather than going backwards and forwards. The Welfare Reform Bill worked better in that way, although some proposals were contested and major changes were made at Report. In addition, I have a pile of papers that would have been easier to deal with in the Moses Room. Those are serious points regarding the correct way of conducting our business and I hope that in the future we will think long and hard as to whether it is right to consider a Bill in Grand Committee or on the Floor of the House. Moving on to this important Bill, we start with the issue of reducing from 39 to 30 years the period that people have to work in order to qualify for a full state pension. This is most relevant to women. Helpful background figures from Age Concern show that17 per cent of single female pensioners live in poverty, that only 24 per cent of newly retired women are entitled to a full basic state pension in their own right and that some 40 per cent of women who are employed part-time say that their employer does not have a pension scheme, compared with 25 per cent of women in full-time employment. I am grateful forthe briefing given by the National Pensioners’ Convention, Tony Lyons and Help the Aged, in support of our amendment. Under the Government’s proposals, there will be an inevitable cliff edge in 2010. As I said at Second Reading, we on these Benches believe that a citizens’ pension should be payable to all, as of right. If that were the case, this sort of problem would not arise, but, meanwhile, we must make the best of the current situation. We invite the Minister to discuss this issue, and although we recognise that it would be very expensive automatically to apply a 30-year rule, rather than a 39-year rule, to everyone now, it would be affordable and sensible to bring forward the cut-off point to 2008. That would save a number of people from that cliff edge. I beg to move.