Clause 9
Pensions Bill
12:30 pm
James Purnell (Minister of State (Pensions Reform), Department for Work and Pensions; Stalybridge and Hyde, Labour)
That point was covered in an earlier debate. The age in respect of qualifying for the state second pension is going up to 12, and for qualifying for the basic state pension it is going down to 12; the two are being harmonised. There was a question whether we could have a theological debate on the matter, and I assured the hon. Gentleman that we could not. The improvements to the basic state pension more than outweigh the reduction from 16 to 12 and raising the state second pension eligibility to 12 will bring a significant number of people into the state second pension.