Social Security

I will, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is important that I make two observations about pensioners and their role in our communities, and explain why it is so important that we value that role. We in this place can never, ever do enough for pensioners. If I were Prime Minister, I would very much like to uprate the annual pension by £100 or £200 a week. However, I am not the Prime Minister and I appreciate that that would be impossible to do, whoever I was. I welcome the Government’s announcement that they are uprating the state pension, but it is, frankly, not generous: £100 or £150 is the bare minimum. Therefore, we in this place constantly need to ask ourselves what more we can do for the retired. Are we doing enough? Of course, the answer will be that we are never, ever, doing enough, but we need to ask ourselves the question. It is important that when we discuss pensions, we consider the many issues facing pensioners today. We understand that although the value of their savings is not deteriorating, the interest on them is going down. A little more than eight months ago we have interest rates of over 5 per cent.; now, we have interest rates of 1 per cent. That is reducing pensioners’ income. A few months ago, we had historically high petrol prices; again, that took a disproportionate amount of pensioners’ income. As we have discussed, one index of inflation—the retail prices index percentage—puts pensioner inflation at 12.2 per cent. not the accepted percentage that we live by in this place. We have also seen year-on-year above-inflation increases in council tax, which have a disproportionate impact on pensioners and their incomes. A couple of hon. Members alluded to that. There is also the cost of utilities. The cost of electricity and gas in the wholesale markets has come down, but that has not yet fed through into the pricing of utilities on the doorsteps of pensioners. I am a relatively wealthy Member of Parliament, and I can afford to wait for utility prices to come down. I do not like waiting—nobody does—but I can afford to do so. For many pensioners, this is becoming very serious. We are having one of the coldest winters for 20 years. I congratulate the Government wholeheartedly on recognising that, but it is very important that they continue to place pressure on the utility companies to get their act together in this respect. Pensioners are absolutely at the heart of all our communities, and we owe them a huge debt of thanks and gratitude. Much of what they do goes unpaid and unrecognised, so we in this place have an obligation, year on year, to ensure that we are doing as much as possible for them.