Clause 19
Pensions Bill
11:15 am
David Laws (Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Work & Pensions; Yeovil, Liberal Democrat)
I shall move my seminar to ensure that it does not, and so that there is no tension over which the Minister should attend. Notwithstanding the clarification of the date, we still do not have much clarity about how many people will be means tested in future. That is enormously important, because people’s views about whether they should invest in personal accounts will differ according to whether they are likely to be subject to the types of withdrawal touched on by the hon. Member for Eastbourne. As we know, the Pensions Policy Institute has a much higher figure for the proportion of people who are likely to be subject to means testing in future—45 per cent. or more in 2050—and its band of prediction for the proportion of people on means testing is very wide. It ranges from50 to 55 per cent. in 2020 to 30 to 65 per cent. in 2030, so there is an enormous band of uncertainty.