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Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, I obviously acknowledge the need to ensure that the upratings statement is adequate for the purpose, but I can in no way understand the technical explanation. The 1992 Act sets out some requirements in the uprating provisions and sets some thresholds to which the Government must respond. However, the Government can do whatever they choose. The Chancellor could decide in the Pre-Budget Statement to increase pensions to any level he likes as long as he respects the thresholds that were set in the 1992 Act; so it completely puzzles me that Parliament feels it must take this power in this clause. It is obviously welcome, and I am not against it—indeed, anyone who is against smaller pensions really would be quite perverse—but I do not understand why this power is required. Incidentally, although I will not do so because it is too late, I could go into my usual rant about the difference between earnings and the retail price index, which over years prejudices low-income families consistently and widens the income gap. Indeed, there is evidence that that is continuing apace and will get worse. This clause and other clauses are otiose. If the Government used their power significantly, sensibly and fairly, they would grab the opportunity at the Pre-Budget Statement to increase the pension to a sensible level that would redress some of the losses that household incomes have suffered in the past. I do not understand the technical explanation or the need for the clause.