Pensions Bill

Part of the debate – in a Public Bill Committee at 9:45 am on 17 January 2008.

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Mike Cherry: I think we have a slightly different take on levelling down. Our membership is over 210,000. The vast majority of that is made up of small businesses with an average number of employees of around four or five. Levelling down is not really an issue for our members. Affordability is the key issue, not only for our members in their own right as owners or directors of their businesses but, crucially, for the employees of those businesses. Levelling down is not really a question, because many of them do not have pension schemes available at the moment. We do very much seek, and have been seeking, both financial assistance and to get the DWP to understand the impact any administrative burden would have on these businesses. Both of those are key issues as far as our members are concerned.