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National Insurance Contributions Bill

As the hon. Gentleman knows, our party supported the broad pension reforms brought forward by the Government, but our concern is that the Bill undermines that consensus and decouples the restoration of the earnings link from the bringing forward of the flatrating of the state second pension. The contributions today have been limited in number but helpful. As I said, we did not have one from a Labour Back Bencher. The Liberal Democrat spokesman, the hon. Member for Rochdale (Paul Rowen), said that he accepted the Government's alignment of the upper earnings limit and the higher rate tax threshold for paying national insurance, but had issues with the upper accruals point and concerns about pensioner poverty. He talked about introducing a citizens pension but failed to say at what level that pension would be introduced. He also did not say whether there would be any limits on who would receive the pension—