| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Simon Burns (West Chelmsford): Undoubtedly, pensioners will welcome the statement about the television licence and the help with winter fuel bills. However, does the right hon. Gentleman realise that his other comments will sound hollow to them, especially after next April, bearing in mind what they said when the retail prices index figures for September were announced and they discovered that their increase would be only 75p a week, despite the fact that they will face additional council tax bills and higher retail prices? Pensioners will be confused by the idea that a Cabinet Minister can proclaim a 1.1 per cent. increase as such a good deal, because they know that his pay has increased by more than double that rate.
Mr. Darling: The hon. Gentleman is the first Conservative--and, for all I know, the only Conservative--to welcome the introduction of free television licences and the help with winter fuel bills. I am glad that he has done so, although it will no doubt occur to him that there is something contradictory in welcoming those while denouncing our public expenditure plans--[Interruption.] Is he saying that he does not denounce our plans? A rebel already!
Secondly, the hon. Gentleman cannot both criticise the increases that I have announced today, and back the shadow Social Security spokesman, who is pledged to slash social security spending. As nearly half social security spending goes on pensions, if the Conservatives really want to slash that spending, they will have to tell us which pensioners will lose out and what benefits will go.
Mr. Christopher Leslie (Shipley):
I am still a few years away from my own entitlement to the free television licence for those over 75, but may I say how enormously welcome it will be to thousands of my constituents. Is it
Mr. Darling:
I said that retirement should be a life to look forward to, and my hon. Friend has a long time to look forward to it. He is right; the Conservatives, because of their opposition to our public expenditure plans, would remove the winter fuel payments. They are also against the minimum income guarantee, so their policy would cost the poorest pensioners about £8 a week--and they would deny the funding for the free television licences. They are therefore in no position to say that if they were in power things would be better. People will look back at what they did over the past 20 years; the Conservatives are the reason why there is so much pensioner poverty today.
Mr. Roy Beggs (East Antrim):
Pensioners in Northern Ireland will welcome the £100 winter fuel payment, and no doubt those over 75 will welcome the free television licence. However, partly because of the high unemployment that we have had, and also because of the lack of opportunity to invest in private pensions, they are among the poorest pensioners in the United Kingdom, and there will be disappointment at the bottom end of the income scale. Can the Secretary of State assure me that every effort will be made to ensure that those in Northern Ireland who qualify for the minimum income guarantee will be encouraged to apply for the benefits to which they are entitled?
Mr. Darling:
I am sure that people in Northern Ireland will welcome the minimum income guarantee in particular. The hon. Gentleman is right to say that many pensioners there did very badly during the 18 years that the Tories were in power, and those people will look to the minimum income guarantee to protect them. As for the take-up campaign, as the hon. Gentleman will be aware, social security in Northern Ireland is a matter for the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, but I am sure that my right hon. Friend will want to take appropriate action there as well.
Mr. Jeremy Corbyn (Islington, North):
I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. However, will he confirm that the Government's objective is to reduce the proportion of state expenditure that goes on pensions from 60 to 40 per cent. over the next 50 years? Does he not understand that the refusal to uprate the basic state pension in line with earnings has created much ill feeling among many pensioners organisations, and that his argument that to do so would lead to extensive clawback is a self-fulfilling prophecy? If he altered the rules on clawback of other benefits, the benefit that pensioners would derive from an increase in the state pension in line with earnings, rather than an inadequate 75p increase, would do much to eliminate pensioner poverty. Above all, it would guarantee an adequate level of state pension for the future, which his current system does not do. All it does is create an expensive minimum income guarantee, which is costly to administer. A basic non-means-tested rise would be much cheaper to administer.
Mr. Darling:
Let me deal first with the Government's long-term plans, which are to encourage moderate and
My hon. Friend also asked about the earnings link. Restoring the earnings link would, by 2020, cost some £18 billion. That would have to be funded, so we have to ask whether that is the best way to help pensioners. I believe that the best way to help pensioners is to continue the policies that I have announced today and ensure that we give most help to those pensioners who have lost out--today's pensioners who have done so badly over the past 20 years--and for the future, to encourage future pensioners who can save to do so. For those future pensioners now on moderate or low earnings, we will give additional state help.
Mr. Owen Paterson (North Shropshire):
The Red Book published in March at the time of the Budget predicted that social security spending would increase dramatically in every successive year up to 2002. Is that forecast still valid?
Mr. Darling:
Social security spending is rising at well under half the rate that it rose under the Conservatives. That is because we have public expenditure under control, and we are not spending money on economic waste because of high unemployment. We are spending far more money on those people who should be supported--those who lost out under the Conservative party during its 18 years in office.
Dr. Lynne Jones (Birmingham, Selly Oak):
I am reassured that my right hon. Friend wishes to reduce the proportion of pensioners reliant on means-tested benefits. As a measure of the success of the Government's policies, will he introduce targets for the reduction in the number of pensioners living below the poverty line and the number reliant on means-tested benefits?
Mr. Darling:
In case my hon. Friend has not had the opportunity to read the report we published in September, which set out the Government's strategy for combating poverty and the causes of poverty and promoting opportunity for people, I can tell her that it sets out targets for pensioners and the rest of the age range. If she has not read it, I strongly commend what I believe to be an excellent document.
Mr. Paul Burstow (Sutton and Cheam):
Given that the oldest pensioners tend to be the poorest pensioners and that the Government intend to target the television licence fee concession on the basis of age, why has not the Secretary of State taken the opportunity of this statement to announce a long-overdue increase in the age addition for the over-80s, which has not been increased from 25p since 1971?
Mr. Darling:
I should have thought that a £100 television licence was quite an increase from the
Mr. Vernon Coaker (Gedling):
I congratulate my right hon. Friend on the policies he has adopted to try to help pensioners. Will he continue to try to explain to the British people--and, as seems necessary, to the British Parliament--that pensioners are not a homogenous group of poor people? Some pensioners are rich, some are in the middle and some are poor. The fact that my right hon. Friend is pursuing a variety of policies means that we can target help on pensioners who need it, without wasting money on those who do not.
Mr. Darling:
My hon. Friend is right. Too often, people assume that all pensioners are the same. In the past 20 years, the income of pensioners as a whole has risen by more than that of any other sector of society. The problem is that, although the income of the 2 million better-off pensioners went up by two thirds, the income of the 2 million at the other end of the scale went up by less than a third, in some cases.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |