Pensions Bill

We have already debated the unfortunate effect that the current system of pension credit is having on a growing proportion of the public, so what worries me about this amendment is proposed paragraph (d) because it looks towards more means-testing and seems entirely the wrong way forward. A few moments ago I described myself as an unpaid cynic, and I am going to be cynical now. I wonder whether the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, has tabled this amendment to check up on his party’s interesting new tax policy of a single basic rate of income tax achieved by abolishing the tax relief on pension contributions on higher earnings, and how that will affect pensions. Rather like the Chancellor, the Liberal Democrats have already been told, though unlike the Chancellor they admit that the benefits of saving linked to a pension for high-rate taxpayers will be reduced. The one thing that has been crystal clear in our discussions on the Bill is that it is all about increasing savings towards retirement, not reducing them. As I understand it, that is exactly what this amendment would do, and I cannot support it on that basis.