Pensions Commission Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Work and Pensions
Lord Bellingham
Main Page: Lord Bellingham (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Bellingham's debates with the Department for Work and Pensions
Pensions Commission
Lord Bellingham Excerpts(1 week ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Lord Bellingham (Con)
My Lords, is the Minister aware that only 17% of the 4.4 million self-employed people in this country are actively saving? Is this of grave concern to her? What are the Government going to do about it?
Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
The noble Lord raises an excellent point. In fact, we have seen a significant drop. In the 1990s, roughly half of people who were self-employed were saving for a pension; it is now under 20%. There are more self-employed people now and there are different kinds of self-employment. However, there is no question that that is a big dip. The Pensions Commission found that, of those whose only income comes from self-employment, only 4% were saving for a pension. One of the key tasks for the Pensions Commission is specifically to look at and recommend to government what to do about all those who are undersaving, including people who are self-employed. I am grateful to the noble Lord for raising that.