Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
26 January 2026
Topical Questions
It has been confirmed that those whose income is only the basic level of the basic state pension or the new state pension will not be required to pay tax next year, because the level of personal allowance has been set above the level of the new state pension. What the Chancellor said at the Budget w…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
26 January 2026
6 contributions
State Pension Age Changes: Compensation
As the Secretary of State set out on 11 November 2025, we are retaking the decision made in December 2024 as it relates to the communications on state pension age. We will update the House on the decision as soon as a conclusion is reached.
I know that hon. Members across the House will have been contacted by constituents who have been affected, and many of us will also have family members who have been affected. As I said, we will update the House as soon as a conclusion is reached. We have committed in public to doing so within three…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
21 January 2026
8 contributions
National Insurance Contributions (Employer Pensions Contributions) Bill
You have years to go.
I thank the hon. Member for Wyre Forest (Mark Garnier) for the reminder of the excellent debate we had before the Christmas break. I thank him and the hon. Member for Witney (Charlie Maynard) for their contributions. I will briefly reiterate the case for the three short and perfectly formed clauses …
+6 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
17 December 2025
9 contributions
National Insurance Contributions (Employer Pensions Contributions) Bill
I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.
This is a short and simple Bill. It is a stocking filler to yesterday’s Finance Bill. [Interruption.] There are just three clauses for the chuntering Opposition Members to enjoy. They focus on amending the Social Security Contributions and Ben…
I will come to the exact point that the hon. Gentleman raises. The main answer to his question is that we are introducing this change with a very long implementation period—it will not come in until 2029—in order to give businesses and others time to adjust. Businesses have welcomed that across the …
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 December 2025
Budget 2025: Impact on Graduates
It is always a pleasure to serve under you in the Chair, Mr Turner. I congratulate the hon. Member for Windsor (Jack Rankin) on securing this important debate. Budget discussions, which there have been lots of in the past month, tend to focus on economic statistics, GDP and borrowing. Those are very…
Commons
Oral Questions
9 December 2025
4 contributions
Topical Questions
Energy bills are too high. The Conservatives left Britain dependent on the rollercoaster of gas prices, and left families paying almost £2 billion on bills for their failed energy efficiency scheme, the energy company obligation. We are scrapping ECO and taking some of the expensive levies off bills…
The welfare state that the Conservative party created is failing, and we are changing it. Welfare spending rose three times as fast under the Conservative Government than it has under this one, because they created a broken welfare system, and I repeat: we will change it.
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
9 December 2025
2 contributions
Budget: Work Incentives
The forecasts accompanying the Budget set out that the Office for Budget Responsibility expects employment levels to rise in every year of this Parliament. They also set out that employment is forecast to be higher in every year than previously expected back in March.
The hon. Member is right to call those things a moral and economic disgrace. Does he know who created them? It was the Conservative party opposite. Who saw a 50% rise in the number of those not in education, employment or training? The party opposite. Who created the benefits system that is failing …
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
8 December 2025
7 contributions
Topical Questions
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question because it gives me a chance to bring the House’s attention to research published after the general election in 2024 but commissioned under the last Conservative Government—I have the document here. What was the research into? It was into capping salary sa…
There is nothing sad about Labour Members watching wages rise faster under this Government than they did under the Conservatives. There is nothing sad about our Back Benchers seeing the end of austerity and seeing public services being improved right across this country.
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
8 December 2025
3 contributions
Pensioner Poverty
To tackle pensioner poverty, we are both increasing the state pension and running the biggest ever pension credit take-up campaign. Raising the new state pension in line with the triple lock over this Parliament is set to increase it by over £2,000 a year, while 60,000 extra pension credit awards we…
I thank my hon. Friend for that important question. I, like her, have met and listened to lots of those affected by the lack of indexation on pre-1997 accruals within the PPF and the FAS. I can assure her that, assuming the Pension Schemes Bill receives Royal Assent, the uprating will take place at …
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
3 December 2025
17 contributions
Pension Schemes Bill
I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
I start by thanking all hon. Members for their valuable contributions during the Bill’s passage to date. In particular, I thank members of the Public Bill Committee who offered line-by-line scrutiny. They have challenged the Government, but always constructively—that includes the shadow Economic Sec…
+15 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
27 November 2025
9 contributions
Budget Resolutions
Who did the borrowing?
It is coming down.
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
26 November 2025
2 contributions
Budget Resolutions
Your ending.
It will fall every year!
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 November 2025
4 contributions
Pension Investment in UK Equities
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I will indeed leave several minutes for the winding-up speech. Like everyone else, I begin by congratulating the right hon. Member for Salisbury (John Glen) on securing this debate, particularly on the Budget eve; it is very kind of him to…
He may not have been paid at all. His focus at the beginning of his remarks on growth and one of its key enablers, investment, was right. If we stepped back and forced ourselves to ask, “What is the one thing the British economy needs more of?”, it would be public and private investment. As several …
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
4 November 2025
2 contributions
Topical Questions
What this Government have done to steady the markets is to kick the Conservatives out of office and leave them in opposition for years to come.
The previous Labour Government cut child poverty significantly, and so will this one.
Commons
Oral Questions
4 November 2025
6 contributions
Regional Economic Growth: Pension Funds
At the heart of this Government’s pension reforms is the goal of bigger and better pension schemes. We are legislating for that in the Pension Schemes Bill by requiring all local government pension scheme assets to be pooled next year, and multi-employer defined contribution schemes to have at least…
The LGPS actually has a strong track record of local investment of exactly the kind that my hon. Friend mentions, including in social housing, and we want to build on that record. The Pension Schemes Bill will introduce requirements for local government pension scheme pools to work with strategic au…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
27 October 2025
3 contributions
Topical Questions
The previous Minister for Pensions met representatives of the WASPI campaign in order to hear directly from them about their experiences. She was the first Minister to do so in eight years. I will look into the details of the letter the hon. Gentleman mentions.
I thank the hon. Lady for her question. In general, lots of life could do with less “computer says no”, so on that basis we will agree. On the specifics of the question she raises about pension credit, the nature of the system is obviously that it provides a guaranteed level of income; it is not set…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
27 October 2025
3 contributions
Indexation of Pension Rights
I obviously recognise the challenges facing those without inflation protection, particularly after the cost of living pressures of recent years, and I think that recognition is shared by Members on both sides of the House. I met a cross-party group of MPs earlier this year to discuss exactly this is…
I absolutely recognise the issue that my hon. Friend has raised: any of us in that situation would want those pension increases to continue. She is aware of the legal background, but I should point out that scheme rules govern when inflation-linked increases can be paid. They are not changed retrosp…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
9 September 2025
Topical Questions
Over 90% of Scotch is exported and is therefore not affected by the measures that the hon. Member has just mentioned, but it will be affected by being the biggest beneficiary of the trade deal with India, which is set to reduce tariffs from 150% to 75% initially, and then to 40% over time. This is w…
Commons
Oral Questions
1 September 2025
4 contributions
Topical Questions
The hon. Lady only had to wait till next week’s Treasury questions, when she could have asked her question, but she has the same answer. What we should do is look at the record of parties and what they have done. When I look back over the last 14 years of Tory Budgets, I see a party— [ Interruption.…
I thank the hon. Member for his question. We discussed this issue at some length in the statement before the recess. He knows that the priority for the Labour party has been to raise the state pension by committing to the triple lock throughout this Parliament at a cost of £31 billion a year. For th…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
1 September 2025
5 contributions
Pension Credit Uptake
The Government are committed to ensuring that all pensioners receive the support to which they are entitled. That is why we have been running the biggest ever pension credit take-up campaign. We plan to continue promotional activity from September through to the end of this financial year, with the …
I hope the hon. Member will write to me with the details of the case she raised. On the more general picture, I can reassure her that we now have a lower backlog of pension credit cases to be processed than we inherited from the last Government, despite the record number of claims that have come thr…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 July 2025
Credit Unions
It is always a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I start obviously by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch (Katrina Murray) on securing this important debate and speaking so powerfully about the role of credit unions. The interest in this topi…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 July 2025
Beer Duty
I always look forward to seeing you in the Chair, Dr Murrison—nearly as much as I am looking forward to that pint. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Woking (Mr Forster) for securing and opening the debate. I thank all the colleagues who have spoken—perhaps unsurprisingly, given the subject—with g…
Commons
Debate
7 July 2025
14 contributions
Pension Schemes Bill
I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.
This Bill aims to deliver fundamental reforms to our pensions landscape, and it is good to see that the prospect of discussing a long, slightly technical pensions Bill has seen so many Members flooding into the Chamber. These are reforms on wh…
I thank my hon. Friend for her question and for her oversight of all our pensions, which I think is reassuring. [ Laughter. ] Sorry; it is reassuring! I will come directly to her point, because I know that is one question that hon. Members on both sides of the House will want to raise. Let me just s…
+12 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
3 July 2025
10 contributions
Women’s State Pension Age: Financial Redress
I thank all hon. Members who have spoken powerfully today, and in particular my hon. Friend the Member for Salford (Rebecca Long Bailey) for leading today’s debate on behalf of the Backbench Business Committee. This is an important topic that she and I have discussed several times, both in public an…
I always thank my hon. Friend for her contributions. She makes a powerful case. I will come on to the reasons why we do not agree with that case, but I understand her point.
This is a cohort of women who have too often faced discrimination in the world of work, with lasting effects on the value of …
+8 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
1 July 2025
Topical Questions
The hon. Lady is right to highlight the question of pensioners’ living standards, and we are taking action right the way across the board to deal with that. She will have seen the increases in the state pension in April. We have seen nearly 60,000 extra awards for pension credit over the course of t…