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Benefits Uprating

I should like to thank the Minister for his usual courtesy in allowing me an advance copy of his statement. Naturally, I welcome the increases in benefits, as far as they go. We will certainly not follow the example set by the Liberal Democrats a couple of years ago and vote against the uprating orders. [Interruption.] I have obviously drawn blood with that remark. The Minister was right to emphasise the position of pensioners. He boasted of having increased the pension by 9 per cent. since 1997, but has he not seen the recent report that shows that each year pensioners face their own distinctive inflation rate of 9 per cent? The Government have rightly given priority to tackling poverty—although they have given themselves a boost by moving the goalposts on the targets in that area—but the issue of pensioner poverty is every bit as important. Does the Minister accept that 2 million pensioners still live in poverty? Why was there no move to increase winter fuel payments for the elderly, especially given the recent sharp rises in energy prices? Why was there no further help for pensioners with their council tax payments, which on average have doubled since 1997? Was the help with those payments merely a pre-election bribe? Does the Minister agree with Mervyn Kohler of Help the Aged? He has said:"““It is bordering on an insult to recycle the same Christmas presents year after year, and brazenly claim that the problem of pensioner poverty is sorted.””" Does the Minister accept that there is nothing in the pension reform package to assist existing pensioners? Is not that especially unfair to women pensioners, who either are retired already or will retire before 2010? Does the Minister accept that there is a particular problem with benefits take-up by pensioners? Up to 1.6 million pensioners do not claim the pension credit to which they are entitled. The worst take-up of all has always been for council tax benefit, with up to 2.2 million pensioners failing to claim. The latest figures show a reduction in the numbers claiming over the previous year. What are the Government doing to encourage the take-up of that benefit, which is crucial for pensioners, who often live on their own? The Minister rightly said that work is the best route out of poverty. We agree, but far too many people are still trapped in an overly complex benefits system. Will he confirm that 1 million people on incapacity benefit want jobs? Will he also confirm that the number of people receiving incapacity benefit for five years or more is now 20 times as great as it was when the Government came to power? In the small print—one should always look at the small print—of the pre-Budget report yesterday, the income threshold for tax credits was frozen at £5,220. Will he confirm that, as a result, many people will see a fall in the value of their tax credits, and that someone working 30 hours a week on the minimum wage will pay a marginal tax rate of 70 per cent.? How is that designed to tackle poverty or to get people out of benefits and into work? Will the Minister confirm that £2.7 billion was lost due to benefit fraud and error last year? That is a wholly unacceptable level of loss of benefit payments. Does he agree that the Government are also set to miss spectacularly their own target for reducing the amount of overpaid housing benefit to claimants of working age by 25 per cent. by this year? Will the Minister tell me what plans his Department has for benefit simplification? For example, the current system for disabled people is extraordinarily complex. In the Committee stage of the Welfare Reform Bill, my colleagues questioned the necessity of separate assessment phases for limited capability for work and limited capability for work-related activity. Will he promise to move towards a single assessment process and will he tell the House what he and his colleagues are doing to simplify the benefits system overall?