Finance (No. 4) Bill

Debate between Baroness Clark of Kilwinning and Stephen Williams

Thursday 19th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Katy Clark]

The hon. Gentleman is well aware that borrowing is going up. As I was saying, despite the fact that the Government are failing and have consistently failed to meet their own targets, the reality is that the cuts in public spending they have already made—and they propose more for the coming years—are having a disproportionate effect on the pensioner community.

[Stephen Williams]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Katy Clark]

I hope to come to a conclusion shortly, but I will give way for the last time.

[Stephen Williams]

The hon. Lady has twice said that pensioners are disproportionately affected by the collection of measures the Government are introducing to reduce the deficit. May I quote what Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said about this particular measure? He said:

“Despite this morning’s headlines, this looks like a relatively modest tax increase on a group hitherto well sheltered from tax and benefit changes. From this Budget we calculate that pensioners will lose on average one quarter of one per cent of their income in 2014”.

How does she square that—the Opposition often like quoting the IFS—with pensioners being disproportionately affected by what the Government are doing?

[Katy Clark]

I think that the hon. Gentleman’s constituents will be very interested by his complacent approach. I suspect that he is well aware of the impact that the Government’s cuts are having on his constituents as well as mine, and well aware of the pain that his constituents are suffering. I am sure that he is also aware that pensioners rely disproportionately on social services and the public sector, and that the forthcoming cuts will make life particularly difficult for them.