CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

WORK AND PENSIONS – INCOME IN RETIREMENT - 20 June 2005

WORK AND PENSIONS – INCOME IN RETIREMENT - 20 June 2005

Dr Julian Lewis: How long he [the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions] expects the consultation on the findings of the Pensions Commission to last?

[SUPPLEMENTARY:] I hope that the Minister [Stephen Timms] read the Secretary of State's [David Blunkett's] comments to the Financial Times as carefully as my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kensington and Chelsea (Sir Malcolm Rifkind) did because he would have seen the Secretary of State admit that the Government have not begun to set their collective mind towards reaching a consensus on the way forward, even though he says that he wants the country to do so. Should not the Government get a bit of a move on, bearing in mind the collapse in savings, the collapse in final salary schemes and the accelerating collapse in pensioner morale?