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Pensions Bill

My Lords, we like Amendment No. 10 and encourage the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, to press it to a Division, if he wishes. It is a modest amendment, but it makes an important point. I was struck by the horrific statistics he gave from National Debtline about the pressure of debt on people’s currently very stretched budgets. Obviously, we get a similar story from Citizens Advice and the other leading bodies in this field. As the noble Lord said, pensions are in principle deferred wages, in the long term. However, in the short term, for people under pressure, pensions contributions are a pay cut. It is all very well, if that contribution is to build up to a worthwhile extra pension in old age. However, if the cost is either letting your debts roll up faster than the pension is rolling up or losing benefit because you lose means-tested benefits in old age, clearly that is not good. We shall be dealing with this whole issue in more detail when we reach the amendments on generic financial advice, but the same arguments apply here in a more modest way. Practically, we do not think it is a good idea that people should have the money taken out and then have to wait for it to come back. Administratively that is also a bad thing. Therefore, the noble Lord has made a good point.