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Benefits Uprating

I thank the Minister for his usual courtesy in letting me have a copy of his statement in advance. We on the Conservative Benches of course do not oppose the uprating of benefits, although we have issues with the administration and complexity of the system, as well as with the disincentives to both work and saving that are inherent in it. Can the Minister update the House on the Department's efforts to tackle fraud and error in the system? It is bad enough that the Government are so inept at dealing with people's confidential records, but why are they still paying out more than £5 billion through fraud and error in the benefits system? Can he confirm that benefit payments have been going to prisoners, students and those who are already in work? Can he also confirm that, at the same time as that largesse at the taxpayer's expense is going on, up to £2.5 billion of pension credit went unclaimed last year—a rise of £500 million on 2004-05? May I welcome the proposal for 1 million pensioners not to have to review their income and capital? However, can the Minister confirm that there will be losers from reducing the backdating for pension credit from 12 to three months? How many does he estimate there will be? What steps will he take to ensure that pensioners are aware of this change in the rules? Is it not the case that the saving made by the change is simply being transferred to, I hope, an increased take-up of means-tested benefits? Is it not simply a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul? Can he confirm that almost 40 per cent. of those entitled to council tax benefit do not claim it, and that pensioners are the worst category in that regard? Is it true that the take-up of the benefit has fallen—fallen—by 12 per cent. since 1997? I therefore welcome the proposals in the statement to increase take-up, but why has it taken so long to produce them? Have the Government not tested to destruction the system of means-tested benefits to the extent that the poorest pensioners are becoming poorer in real terms? Will he explain the Government's failure yet again to provide help to pensioners with their council tax bills? The Minister made much in his statement of what the Government are allegedly doing for pensioners. While he mentioned the restoration of the link between the state pension and average earnings, he gave no clue whatever as to when that might happen. Previously, it has been said that it would happen in 2012 or 2015, or not even then if it was unaffordable. When will it happen? As the Minister pointed out, there is a broad measure of consensus over long-term pensions reform. My party supports the overall pensions settlement emerging from the Turner commission. In our last election manifesto, we embraced auto-enrolment and the need to boost pension savings. But does he accept that we have legitimate concerns about the design of personal accounts? In recent weeks, Ministers and others have tried to shut down debate on those important issues by suggesting that the official Opposition were in some way undermining the consensus. I wholly reject that argument. Does he not accept that it is the job of the official Opposition to question? We have serious questions about the effects of means-testing on pensions saving. The Pensions Policy Institute has identified at-risk groups who will be no better or worse off as a result of being auto-enrolled into personal accounts. Can the Minister confirm that he takes the issue seriously? Does he appreciate that whatever politicians might say, commentators and journalists are bound to write the story that some people will not be better off? It is fundamentally an issue of confidence, which has been badly shaken by the pensions crisis. Will he make a statement in the near future on proposals to deal with the problem? While we are on the subject of confidence, will the Minister confirm that he will shortly receive and publish the Young report, and bring forward proposals for compensation in response to pension victims' legitimate claims? We broadly support the measures mentioned by the Minister in response to the deregulatory review. I assure him of our broad support on the revaluation of deferred pensions and on the statutory override. If we are to stem the disastrous decline in defined benefit schemes, however, Ministers must be more radical and courageous. I assure him that he will have our encouragement and support in looking at radical options such as risk-sharing. On personal accounts, is it not most unfortunate that the new chairman of the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority, Paul Myners, has rendered his position wholly untenable, given his intemperate attack on the official Opposition from his civil service position and his record as a Labour donor? Finally, does the Minister accept that with nearly 2 million pensioners living in poverty, 125,000 pension victims, nearly 5 million people claiming out-of-work benefits, and the highest proportion of children living in workless households in the whole of the European Union, the complacency that peppers his statement today is grossly misplaced?