Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day] — Pensions Policy — 3 Jul 2007 at 21:46

I beg to move,

That this House notes the loss of public trust in the UK pension system caused by the continuing £5 billion per year stealth tax raid on pension funds, the winding up of 60,000 occupational pension schemes since 1997, the closure of two-thirds of remaining final salary pension schemes to new members and the acceleration of closures to new accruals by existing members; further notes the loss by 125,000 workers whose pension schemes have failed of some or all of their pensions and the poor performance of the Financial Assistance Scheme in supporting them and the growing concern about the disparity between pension expectations in the public and private sectors as well as the size of the unfunded public sector occupational pension liabilities faced by future taxpayers; and calls on the new Prime Minister to acknowledge his role in the pensions crisis and to take personal responsibility for the urgent task of restoring to millions of hard-working families the confidence to save for retirement.

I beg to move,

That this House welcomes the policies of this Government to tackle pensioner poverty which have lifted two million pensioners out of absolute poverty and one million out of relative poverty, the action to tackle the legacy of pensions mis-selling, support occupational pensions through a Pension Protection Fund set up for the first time and a new Pensions Regulator, further support for 125,000 people through the Financial Assistance Scheme whose occupational pensions were affected by employer insolvency, set out the long-term framework for pensions through the new Pensions Bill, including re-linking the basic State Pension to average earnings, introduce a new scheme of low cost personal accounts and stakeholder pensions of which over three million have been created, remove the dividend tax credit, make reductions in corporation tax which have contributed to the 50 per cent. rise in business investment, broker public sector pension agreements which ensure a fair deal for today's and tomorrow's public sector workers and introduce free television licences and the Pension Credit to provide an additional framework of support for today's pensioners.'.

Question put accordingly, That the original words stand part of the Question:-

The House divided: Ayes 197, Noes 297.

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