Clause 15
Pensions Bill
9:30 am
Sally Keeble (Northampton North, Labour)
I am grateful for the opportunity to ask some questions because this clause is extremely technical. I suspect that it will fly below many people’s radar but have a massive impact on widows, in particular, but also on civil partners, who are dependent on the main breadwinner for their pension rights. That is partly why I have raised survivors’ rights previously.
I think back to the problems of widow’s SERPS when women found out much later on that what they had assumed to be a secure income for their retirement was not, because the provisions that protected its value had been changed. There were issues about the information and the amount of time that they had. I am mindful that the Government were taken to the ombudsman by a number of MPs, including me, because our constituents had not received the information. I am pleased that the new regulations will be by affirmative resolution, as that will make us focus our attention on them. I hope that there will be very good consultation with the women’s groups as well as with the pensions industry, because although the pensions industry might understand the figures, the women’s organisations understand the human consequences of the calculations.
I hope that careful provision will be made, or that requirements will be placed on providers, to ensure that the right information is given to people when they make their pension arrangements. The information should focus on what will happen to their survivors—spouses or civil partners—so that they can make informed choices and do not find, part-way down the line when they are still working or are into their retirement, that they will not receive what they thought they would or, when the main breadwinner dies, that the survivor’s income is catastrophically changed.
I had some questions about clause 14, but I will take them up separately with the Minister. When we were dealing only with widow’s SERPS it was a very different society; now we have to ensure that the provisions are consistent for widows, widowers and civil partners. I trust that those matters will have been properly attended to so that the regulations are fit for purpose when they are introduced.