---

Finance Bill

I say again to my right hon. Friend that the distribution of households that are paying more is rather different from how it has been portrayed in the media. It is clear that the lowest-income households are the ones who benefit the most. This is an area on which we continue to work and, following on from our work on child poverty, we will look at those people without children and what more can be done to support them. We will also take the views not simply of MPs, but of stakeholders and others. I want to return to the important point about the winter fuel payment, which is important for pensioners this year. In order to fund the additional winter fuel payment, as well as child benefit and child tax credit increases the following year, we are increasing alcohol duty as part of this Finance Bill. Over recent years, as incomes have risen, alcohol has become more affordable. In the supermarket, a bottle of wine costs around £4, whereas 10 years ago, the equivalent figure was nearly £4.50. The extra duty is worth only around 14p, so that bottle of wine is still cheaper than it was a decade ago. That is why this is a fair time to raise a bit of extra revenue from alcohol to help pensioners and families with children.