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Benefits Uprating

The Chancellor has just made his pre-Budget report and I am sure that he will take my hon. Friend’s comments as the first representation on the Budget. I am glad that our policy on pensions has increased general well-being and that my hon. Friend is much happier than he was with what the Government are doing. The savings credit goes up broadly in line with earnings—in fact, I think it has been going up faster. We want to make sure that we reduce the amount of means-testing in the system, so we are making some changes, but our principle continues to be that we want to ensure that the poorest in society have a safety net that rises in line with earnings and that we reward people’s modest savings above that level. That is what the pension credit has done and will continue to do.