Pensions Commission
Debate between Baroness Sherlock and Baroness Finlay of Llandaff(1 week, 4 days ago)
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Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
I now realise that I did a terrible job, because repeatedly during the passage of the Pension Schemes Act I tried to explain why that was not right, and I utterly failed—I will have one last go. The Government set out a pensions investment review to look at the state of the landscape of private pension saving. We then recognised that, if we want people to save more for their retirement in private pensions, we need to make sure that they will get the returns they need. The Pension Schemes Act is now laying the ground to make sure that private pension savers are getting the returns, so that if the Pensions Commission looks at it and decides there needs to be more private pension saving, the people who make those savings will get the return on that hard-earned money. It does all come together. I know the noble Lord was not able to be there, but I did a briefing yesterday, open to all Peers, on what is happening in the pensions area, and we set out a road map showing how all these things come together; I would be very happy to send him a copy of that.
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)
My Lords, in welcoming the Minister back to her seat, with her in-depth knowledge of all these topics, can I ask whether the Pensions Commission will explore how access to the state pension for terminally ill people of working age who are too ill to continue working can be made available? A large number of them have already paid 35 years of contributions but, because they are young, they are not accessing the pension at a time when they desperately need it.
Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
My Lords, I am not pre-empting anything that the commission will say, but the Government are very aware of the position of people who have terminal illnesses. As the noble Baroness of course knows very well, we have looked at some of the rules around how, for example, the benefits system can best assist people. She may be aware, from a Question answered by my noble friend Lord Livermore in which she was very much involved, that the Government have agreed to look at the way in which the tax system more broadly treats that and how we will address it. All those things are being looked at in the round. What the Pensions Commission does is up to it and I wait to hear what it has to say.
Health-related Benefits Assessments
Debate between Baroness Sherlock and Baroness Finlay of Llandaff(1 month, 3 weeks ago)
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Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
That is so often correct, I have to say to my noble friend. In this case, we are in a situation where we are doing all we can to drive up face-to-face assessments. The most important question is that we get everyone into work who possibly can work. The biggest crisis of our time is in relation to young people. That is where the Secretary of State has put his focus; he has prioritised addressing the million young people we have not in employment, education or training. That is why we are investing in the youth guarantee, in support for employers, in subsidies for wages and in making sure we go out there to find the challenges and get people into work. This Government are doing something about that problem.
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)
How many long-term claimants with severe long-term disabilities, who will never have a life devoid of dependence on disability benefits, has it been agreed will not be recalled to assessment—assessments which proved to be futile and quite damaging to their whole persona as they feel they are not being believed? These are often people who have got severe brain damage or ongoing congenital abnormalities and genetic difficulties.
Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
I am grateful to the noble Baroness for raising such an important point and for her work and expertise in this area. Our job is to make sure that we assess the right people at the right time. There is always a danger when debating this that we forget the significant number of people who are absolutely dependent on sickness and disability benefits; frankly, most of them would give anything to not be dependent on those benefits and to not have had the condition, injury or accident that transformed their lives for ever.
Our job is to make sure that those who need our support get it. We have been looking at the way we review things, so that we are reviewing the right people to make sure they get the right level of award. If it gives the noble Baroness some reassurance, there will be cases where the health assessor can clearly make a judgment based on the medical evidence alone. In those cases, they will not necessarily need to see somebody face to face or call them to an assessment. Where there is any doubt, however, we need to make sure that people get the right support if they are entitled to it and give confidence to the public that we are doing those assessments in the right way.