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Pensions Bill

My Amendment No. 71 is an amendment to government Amendment No. 70. I listened with interest to the Minister’s explanation. The government amendments are, of course, very sensible. With the state pension age rising to 68 over a long period, it would be wrong to insist that qualifying DB schemes should maintain their retirement age at 65. However, the Minister’s amendment only allows the Government to ensure that the test scheme benchmark is kept up to date; it does not ensure that it will be done. My amendment would make certain that no qualifying DB scheme is held to a lower age than the state counts from. Such a situation is, I am sure, not one that the Minister would consider beneficial. DB schemes are already fighting numerous disadvantages compared with money purchase schemes, as the ever falling number remaining open to new members makes clear. My amendment would not prevent a scheme from choosing to allow retirement at an earlier age if it should wish to. It would merely make annual regulations adjusting the prescribed age unnecessary, which I hope the Minister would approve of.