Pensions Bill

My Lords, to try to pre-empt any teasing I shall apologise for putting my notes on a stand, but t...

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 4A and 6, which are in my name and that of my noble friend ...

My Lords, as the noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock, said previously, there is great confusion among t...

My Lords, I wish to comment briefly on this group of amendments as much as anything to apologise ...

My Lords, these amendments centre on the group of women who will receive a state pension under th...

On that point, have the Government therefore costed what might happen if they simply included thi...

I will have to write with that estimate. There is every way of doing these estimates that one can...

Will the noble Lord write to us and spell that last comment out? If I understood it correctly, it...

My Lords, it is now in Hansard. We will spend some time on derived entitlement in later clauses, ...

I am trying to address these questions as I go, otherwise I will forget them. Does that legal adv...

That legal advice covers the full gamut of the legal position. On pension sharing, the average nu...

We will come on to pension sharing later in much greater detail, but I am sure that the Minister ...

I can confirm what the noble Baroness says: I am talking about the additional pension, not the st...

Before my noble friend responds, I think that the Minister has ticked off all my questions and sa...

It will be easier if I push that analysis of the figures into the letter-writing process rather t...

The Minister has been generous in giving us access to his Box, but a lot of our queries and quest...

I thank the noble Baroness for that. I was going to suggest that we can come back to this. We hav...

I think that that is prudent. We are dealing with a lot of stats. Certainly, I read the evidence ...

Moved by

Lord McKenzie of Luton

4: Clause 1, page 1, line 8, at end insert—

“( ...

My Lords, this is a gentle, probing amendment designed to give some respite to the Minister and t...

My Lords, I want to comment very briefly. I declare an interest, which I know is relevant to this...

My Lords, I shall have to speak very quietly because I have lost my voice, so if anybody fails to...

My amendment is about a public education programme, which is necessary as so many people are in t...

My Lords, these amendments relate to the crucial question of information. The Government have str...

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, and the noble Baroness, Lady Greengross, for thi...

Six hundred?

Six hundred thousand statements were provided. I assure the noble Lord that we intend to continue...

Why on demand? Why not automatically, as a right?

The cost of providing it to absolutely everyone in the country would be large and, in capacity te...

If there were increased demand because of the changes that are taking place in the broader commun...

One of the issues here is that we will need to talk, or write, to people who cannot get the infor...

The more the Minister describes this, the unhappier I get. The people who most need the informati...

Well, my Lords, I can just take you through our plans in this area so let me continue to do that....

As ever, I am grateful to the Minister for his full reply. I think that I have ended up slightly ...

Will the Minister think about the possibility of, say, when someone hits the age of 50, a pension...

My Lords, I shall try to consolidate where we are here. We will provide full information on our c...

Perhaps I may give the noble Lord another example, and this will apply to other amendments later ...

My Lords, just to wrap up this position, I do not think that any noble Lord in this Room will be ...

My Lords, before I withdraw the amendment, can I check on two points? The Minister said that it w...

I shall take the noble Lord’s second question first. We realise that some people today are not ne...

I am grateful for those further clarifications. I have just one final point—I promise no more. Is...

I complained about razor blades before. I am pleased to be able to inform the noble Lord that, no...

Perhaps I could write to the noble Lord. It just seems to me that one would have assumed that the...

Moved by

Baroness Hollis of Heigham

5: After Clause 1, insert the following new Claus...

My Lords, I hope that Committee will forgive me if just for a second I revisit Amendment 3 and pe...

My Lords, I shall take advantage of the helpful peg of this amendment moved by my noble friend La...

My Lords, I shall say very little. I am so keen to hear the answer to that last question that I s...

I shall start with the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, referring to the previous a...

Was I correct in understanding that the noble Lord confirmed that the figures that we have show t...

The noble Baroness is correct that the analysis is done on a net basis. I am dubious about whethe...

That prompts the obvious question: why not? However, will the Minister write to us on why the net...

I will certainly be pleased to write on the thinking behind why it is net. As I say, I am not in ...

It would be very helpful if the Minister could write and confirm that it was net. It would also b...

For the noble Baroness’s sake, I shall repeat what I just said. I will write to confirm that they...

I am sure that the Minister will understand our need for clarity on some of these issues—whether ...

Before my noble friend sits down, does she agree that the drop in the share of GDP would have bee...

My noble friend is exactly right and I thank him for that. Perhaps the Minister could write to us...

Maybe to save myself a bit of ink in letters, I should point out that we have done the range of s...

On what price basis—is that in real terms, in today’s money? What are we talking about?

Clearly, a quote done at that time would be using the money of the day. We would not be doing it ...

My Lords, I have to say that I am not persuaded by those responses but at this point, I will with...

Moved by

Baroness Hollis of Heigham

7: Clause 2, page 1, line 13, at end insert “incl...

My Lords, Amendment 7 is another probing amendment so that we understand the buyback rules. By vi...

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend Lady Hollis for opening what appears, from the express...

I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, for this amendment on voluntary national insurance contr...

The 2008 Act.

I thought that I said the 2008 Act.

I am grateful to the Minister. On this side, we heard 2000.

My Lords, I must have swallowed my “eight”. I apologise for my grammar. I add that there is no cl...

My Lords, what the Minister has said is what I expected to be the case. However, he has failed to...

No, let me provide clarity. The system does not let people buy back years before the 2006-07 poin...

I may need to go and do some research, but my understanding of the 2008 Act was that there were c...

My Lords, I thought that I had just said that we had made that concession a general one in practi...

My Lords, I wonder if I could help my noble friend Lady Hollis here, although on this issue I am ...

Without indulging in too much nostalgia, particularly as I was not present in 2008—or was not pre...

My Lords, I am sorry but I really disagree with the Minister on this. My noble friend Lord Browne...

Perhaps I may respond to a clearly impassioned speech by pointing out that we have announced the ...

Forgive me, but class 3A is for the additional state pension and not for the BSP. It will also be...

My Lords, I need to point out that we have a comprehensive means-tested system. People who have f...

My Lords, I shall withdraw the amendment, but I would have thought that the Minister would do eve...

My noble friend may wish to take this opportunity to have recorded the apparent inconsistency bet...

My noble friend is absolutely right, but we have probably pushed this matter as far as we can ton...

Moved by

Baroness Turner of Camden

8: Clause 2, page 1, line 17, leave out “35” and i...

My Lords, this amendment is about the 35-year qualification period to get the full-rate single-ti...

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend Lady Turner for her amendment, which, as your Lordship...

With respect to the noble Lord, it is slightly unfair to criticise this document for being so lon...

Clearly, my carefully constructed argument was utterly wasted. I just want to make two points to ...

I am sorry if I lost the noble Lord’s argument in not realising that he was arguing for a review;...

My Lords, under the single-tier pension we will be merging two schemes: the basic state pension, ...

I thank everyone who has participated in the debate because it has been very interesting. However...