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Pensions Bill

Not every Bill does everything for everybody. This Bill is about tomorrow’s pensioners, and was never intended to be about today’s. As it turns out, greater longevity means that it will affect today’s pensioners, as some of them will still be alive to benefit from its provisions. I am pleased to say that the Bill will be of particular benefit to women, and that is what I want to concentrate my remarks on, but women who have retired already believe that the introduction of the pensions credit has been a great help. The Government have come a long way since their election in 1997, when they inherited an enormous problem of pensioner poverty. Only 10 short years ago, pensioners were dying from a lack of food and heat in the winter. Then, being a pensioner very often meant living in poverty: now, pensioners—or old people as a whole—are no more likely to live in poverty than members of the general population. That is a remarkable turnaround, and shows what a huge effect the shift in public policy has had. That shift began with the introduction of the pension credit. I make no apology for the element of means-testing involved, nor for the steps that the Government took in introducing it, as the policy was absolutely correct. My hon. Friend the Member for Northampton, North (Ms Keeble) was right to say that increasing the basic state pension or restoring the link with earnings would have had no impact on the poorest pensioners, or on the 1.5 million women who did not qualify for the basic state pension. Urgent action needed to be taken, and that is what the Government did in the years immediately after 1997. The pension credit lifted 2 million pensioners out of absolute poverty and more than 1 million out of relative poverty, and the Government now have a breathing space. They are therefore able to look at tomorrow’s pensioners, including those women who have yet to retire, to see what needs to be put in place so that they can benefit from the basic state pension. That is what the Bill is about—making sure that more and more women will qualify for the basic state pension when they retire. The Government have chosen to achieve that aim by reducing the number of years needed for eligibility for the basic state pension and by changing the qualifications, especially for carers. The hon. Members for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond) and for Bournemouth, West (Sir John Butterfill) both talked about the cliff edge for national insurance contributions in 2020, when, depending on a woman’s age, she could be just one day short of benefiting from the 30-year contribution period. Both cited the number of women who would be affected by the change, but that is not necessarily the number who will be disadvantaged by it. The figures do not take into account the fact that a large number of those women will already be receiving pension credit, so the level of the basic state pension or its contributory elements will not matter; almost all their pension will be made up by pension credit. None the less, I urge the Government to look into some form of smoothing mechanism, to make sure that the cliff edge is not so absolute. However, I accept that there has to be one at some stage; there has to be a specific day when the qualifications change. I had planned to speak about the more generous carer’s credit, but my hon. Friend the Member for Northampton, North went into detail about the definition of a carer in her speech. She set out how a carer could qualify for credits towards contributions to the basic state pension. However, I urge the Government to consider how different caring roles can add up to the 20 hours a week set as the threshold. Eligibility should not be dependent on only one job; for example, women of my age who have looked after their children may have gone back to work but dropped out again in their 50s to look after grandchildren and an elderly relative. The individual elements of such care might not add up to 20 hours, but in combination they could easily do so. The hon. Member for Bournemouth, West suggests that GPs should make judgments about care for people with disabilities or ill health. I have to disagree: GPs are not qualified to make judgments about the amount of care an individual needs. They can determine whether someone is ill and what medical care they need, but I do not think they would welcome having to make judgments about social or personal care; it is not in their remit. I say that as someone with a disability. Just because a doctor may be able to diagnose my condition, they do not necessarily understand its effects on how I live my day-to-day life. Putting such matters into the hands of GPs makes them medical rather than social judgments.