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Benefits Uprating

I begin by thanking the Minister for his usual courtesy in letting me have sight of his statement in advance. The Conservatives support the uprating of benefits. Anything that will help hard-pressed individuals and families at this difficult time is welcome, especially as this Government's own policies have contributed so much to the economic downturn and to its likely duration and severity. Every day brings new job losses, including the extremely bad news from Woolworths only yesterday. Will the Minister share with the House his projections for unemployment levels over the next 12 months? I also wonder whether he has an up-to-date figure for the amounts paid out by his Department due to fraud and error. On welfare reform, the Minister knows that he will have our support, if the Government are really serious about tackling these hugely important issues. We welcome the increase in the state pension, which will then be worth, as we have heard, £95.25 a week and £152.30 for a couple. Perhaps the Minister will join me in pointing out to the leader of the Liberal Democrats that it is not £30 a week. Will the Minister tell us exactly when the Government intend to restore the link with earnings for the state pension? We know that £5 billion of benefits go unclaimed by pensioners every year, so what are the Government doing to increase take-up? About 40 per cent. of those entitled to council tax benefit do not claim it, and 1.8 million are not claiming pension credit. Will the Minister restore the boosting of take-up as a departmental priority? The Government's decision to reduce the period of backdating from 12 to three months for pension credit claims suggests that they are more interested in saving money than in increasing take-up. Will the Minister confirm that at least 110,000 pensioners will be adversely affected by that change, and that they will tend to be older pensioners? There are already 2.5 million pensioners living in poverty in this country, so how are the Government going to tackle that disgraceful state of affairs? We naturally welcome the extra £60 and so forth, but does that really tackle the problems faced daily by our older citizens? Help the Aged describe the pre-Budget report as"““a truly skinflint package for the UK's older citizens. The chilling message from the Chancellor is 'keep struggling'””." Age Concern said of the same report that it"““will still leave many of the oldest and poorest pensioners…paying the price for the economic downturn.””" Falling interest rates may be popular with some people—indeed, with many people—but there is one section of the population for whom they are really bad news. Does the Minister recognise that many pensioners are facing real hardship because their hard-won savings are now attracting very low interest? Now there is talk about interest rates reaching even zero. We are talking about people who have done the right thing, and what successive Governments told them to do: they saved during their working lives so that their savings could supplement their income in retirement. To add insult to injury, those with modest savings are assumed to earn 10 per cent. on their savings when it comes to eligibility for pension credit. In these times of falling interest rates, that is surely total nonsense. I am sure that pensioners would love to get 10 per cent. on their savings, but in Brown's bankrupt Britain, that idea is pure fantasy. Will the Minister please undertake to approach the Treasury as a matter of urgency to right this wrong? Will the Minister confirm that he is wholly confident that the new personal accounts system will begin on schedule in 2012, and that it will definitely come in at or below a 0.5 per cent. cost base? Is he confident that the crucial issue of the relationship with means-tested benefits will be addressed in good time so that we do not have hundreds of thousands of people who are no better off, or worse off, as a result of being auto-enrolled into personal accounts? Will the right hon. Gentleman tell the House what the Government intend to do in respect of deregulatory measures to encourage defined benefit provision? Is there an intention to add any such measures to the welfare reform Bill? This Government have presided over the closure of more than 70,000 occupational pension schemes since 1997, yet we know such schemes are likely to provide a significantly more comfortable retirement than personal accounts ever will? Why have the Government given up on final salary schemes? The Prime Minister may think that he is saving the world, but is it not high time he got round to repairing our broken society?