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Pensions Bill

I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis. This is an interesting idea and potentially a rather valuable one. From memory, in the United States there was a similar scheme a few years back. It had both advantages and disadvantages. It illustrated the scope of what people might require and how they might be helped in this way. It seems to me that it makes the whole concept more attractive. That is important because if we are going to have more people covered by pension saving we have to make it as obviously attractive as we can. It also means that the tax-free sum could help women in particular at particularly difficult and crucial times of their lives. The noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, said that this does not mean that your pension savings are simply locked away for life. That is a rather important point to hang on to. It recognises that many women are not able both to have a pension and to save in addition to that pension. That is the crucial point. I should have thought that anything that could be done to help in that regard should be done and is obviously of particular importance to women. This is an imaginative idea that deserves study and I hope that the Government will give an assurance that they will at least think about it and examine its potential.