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Pensions Bill

I ask the Committee to reject the amendment and I thank all noble Lords who have contributed to this short but important debate. As the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, said, the issue of savings incentives and the interaction with means-tested benefit has enjoyed lengthy and constructive debate in both Houses, and it is clearly an important issue. Perhaps he did not use the word ““constructive””; that is my gloss on his presentation. I reiterate that under reasonable assumptions the majority of those who enrol can expect to benefit from having saved, and we must not lose sight of that. The noble Lord’s amendment would delay introduction of the personal accounts scheme, but seemingly not auto-enrolment generally, if the number who may not benefit was greater than 10 per cent of the total expected pensioner population. I hope that we all accept—the noble Baroness, Lady Thomas, touched on this—that no amount of analysis can tell individuals at the point of enrolment exactly how their lives will turn out possibly decades into the future. We know from analysis, for example, that there is around a 10 per cent chance that a 20 year-old man today will not reach state pension age, but no one is suggesting that we should stop advising 20 year-old men to save for their retirement. On this issue, perhaps I may quote the noble Lord, Lord Turner, who said that, "““if at the end of the year your house has not been burgled, it does not mean that it was bad advice to buy a household insurance that year””." As I said at the outset, our package of reforms means that most people can expect good outcomes from saving, while those who do not wish to save will be able to opt out. The provisions in the Bill represent the remaining pieces of our pension reform package, and any delay in their introduction would deny many individuals the very real benefits of starting to save early. Again, as the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, said, we have already published our projections of entitlement to all income-related benefits for the pensioner population until 2050. Around 40 per cent of pensioner households will be entitled to one or more income-related benefits by 2050. As my noble friend Lady Hollis said, there is no prospect of reducing that figure to 10 per cent. Indeed, as I think we have discussed before, if the basic state pension were doubled in 2012, in 2050 25 per cent of pensioners would still be on one or more income-related benefits. Through our reforms we are reducing the level of means-testing, not increasing it, because without reform it would have increased to 75 per cent in that period. By 2050, the basic state pension will be worth more than double what it otherwise would have been, ensuring a solid foundation for private saving. We could debate, as we have done in the past, what an appropriate level might be for pensioner households on means-tested benefits, but I do not apologise for the need to retain a means-testing system. Such a system protects the most vulnerable individuals against poverty within inevitable cost constraints. However, in this debate we must absolutely not lose sight of the fact that both our analysis and that of the Pensions Policy Institute demonstrate that people can be on benefits in retirement and be better off for having saved. Equating those on income-related benefits with those who will not be better off from savings is simply not right. We need to remember that because of our reforms to the state pension system, someone with a good record of working or caring, including those on low earnings, can expect a state pension of around £150 in 2008-09 earnings’ terms by 2050, more than £25 above the pension credit guarantee. The interaction between means-testing and savings incentives is not a new issue. There are already safeguards in place to improve incentives to save. In 2003, we introduced the savings credit to prevent a pound-for-pound clawback. People can take up to 25 per cent of their pension pot as a tax-free lump sum and those with less than £16,000 can take 100 per cent of their pension pot. Our analysis shows how these are already working to improve incentives for those who have been suggested as the most vulnerable. Older groups with lower earnings, for example, are most likely to be able to trivially commute their savings, gaining a cash sum. Up to £6,000 of that—a significant amount for many, I suggest—can be held without any impact on any pension credit or housing benefit that they may receive. We would have to think carefully before discouraging such people from saving. Indeed, while the challenges around means-tested benefits are clearly an important matter, the PPI has stated that this, "““does not mean that people should … be auto-enrolled””." But, as the PPI has also made clear, this implies that people will need access to clear information. We fully agree with that; indeed, Clause 9 of the Bill recognises the importance of information. We will ensure that every automatically enrolled individual has access to the range of information that they need to understand the process of automatic enrolment, the pension scheme into which they will be enrolled, their expectations for a state pension and the implications for their later life. Anyone who does not think that pension saving is for them, regardless of the reason, will be able to opt out. But that should not be allowed to detract from, or hinder, the fact that we are further improving savings incentives through this Bill. Millions of workers, many for the first time, will see their pension contributions matched pound for pound through the employer contribution and tax relief. It is right that we should protect against unpredictable events and provide a safety net for those who need it most and it is right that we should encourage individuals to save and take personal responsibility for their own retirement income, giving them the security and flexibility of their own savings pot. Governments always need to strike a balance between alleviating poverty and encouraging savings. They must do so in a way that is both affordable and sustainable. Our reform package achieves that. We agree that this is an important matter, but the Government, external stakeholders and, I thought, all political parties are also agreed that there is no magic bullet and that progress of this Bill need not be delayed. Nigel Waterson MP said: "““We never thought it was realistic to deal with this during the life of the bill””." That said, we have listened carefully to the concerns of those in Parliament and outside. Age Concern, Help the Aged and others have asked us to set up a review to look at these issues again and to have an informed debate on the issue. We are now well advanced in that review involving stakeholders and external experts as well as the very best analytical minds and tools at the Department for Work and Pensions. The review will further expand an already extensive evidence base on this issue. It will further improve our understanding of incentives and the impact on behaviour. It will look at how different factors and individual characteristics affect outcomes. Clearly the lessons of this will be vital in developing our information strategy. Importantly, it will assess some of the proposed measures put forward, putting in the public domain an objective assessment of their pros and cons, their costs and the effects on our wider tax and benefit policy. In all this, we are mindful of the need to strike the right balance between alleviating poverty and personal responsibility for retirement income. We are also mindful of the cost constraints that we face, but we will consider the evidence of the programme and its full implications. I shall briefly touch on some technical issues relating to the drafting—