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Proceeding contribution from Baroness Hollis of Heigham (Labour) in the House of Lords on Monday, 31 October 2011. It occurred during Debate on bill on Pensions Bill.


Pensions Bill

My Lords, I support my noble friend, particularly on the issue of orphan assets and the situation of deferred pensioners. As the noble Baroness explained, most men will have up to eight job changes and women will have something like 11 job changes in their lifetime, particularly when they are younger. For example, women in modest jobs, such as hairdressing or in the service industry, may at some points be self-employed and at other times be employed by different employers. They could very well end up with a pot in NEST, or its equivalent, of some £20,000 to £25,000, and several small pots of £2,000 or £2,500 from previous employments. Those little pots are too small to be annuitised, but there is no way to transfer them into the larger pot of NEST, and they cannot be trivially commuted because the NEST pot is over the £18,000 ceiling. Could the noble Lord share with the House his thinking about what women, particularly, on very modest earnings with very modest savings but with a possible multiplicity of small pots so that they can neither annuitise nor aggregate not trivially commute, are expected to do? Can the Minister assure us that he is making arrangements so that, at least at the point of retirement, they will be able to bring those miscellaneous small pots with orphan assets into the NEST pot to ensure that they get the best possible outcome in retirement?


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
731 c1003 
Session
2010-12
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
Age Annuities Women Equality Insolvency Workplace pensions Pensions Consumer prices index Retail prices index State retirement pensions Retirement Occupational money purchase schemes
Legislation
Pensions Bill (HL) 2010-12
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk