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Pensions Bill

My hon. Friend is right, but I would go further. I do not agree with means-testing as part of the pension. I want it eliminated entirely, with a quick restoration of the pension for everyone, to at least the minimum poverty level and beyond. We ought to consider restoring the pension for all to the level that it would have reached had the earnings link not been broken. That means that the pension would be roughly 25 per cent. of average earnings—40 per cent. higher than the current level. Even then we would still have one of the lowest pensions in the whole of Europe, and certainly in western Europe. Our basic state pension is disgracefully low. We must do more than just restore the link; we must go beyond it and look towards a much higher, non-means-tested basic state pension. I have made that point a number of times, and time and again I have heard about affordability. As I have said in such debates before, when my children were young my son would occasionally ask for another ice cream. My wife would say, ““But mummy can't afford it.”” What she was saying was not that she could not afford another ice cream, but that she chose not to pay for one, because she did not want him to have one. Affordability is something that we can decide. We can decide that something is necessary and make the necessary payments for it. The basic state pension is far too low. It should not be means-tested and it should never have had the link with earnings broken. I want our Government to start building towards a much more decent state pension for the future.