"I have put my views on the record, but the right hon. Gentleman has not answered the question I asked in my second intervention. What percentage increase does he think should be in the order this evening?..." Alan Reid - View Speech
"The pension increase is higher than both the rate of inflation and the increase in earnings. The hon. Gentleman seems to disagree with the 2.5% figure that the Government are putting forward. Will he tell us what the percentage increase in the pension would be if Labour were in power?..." Alan Reid - View Speech
"I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for being generous in giving way. He knows perfectly well that under the previous Government and under this Government the rate of inflation in the previous September is used to calculate the pension increase for the following year. That has not changed, and …..." Alan Reid - View Speech
"I still have not got the answer to the question I asked the right hon. Member for East Ham (Stephen Timms), and I am now asking the hon. Gentleman. If Labour was in power, what would the pension increase be?..." Alan Reid - View Speech
"The Bill covers only two years, but the Government have already announced in the autumn statement their intention to introduce a statutory instrument so that the 1% also applies next year, so it will cover three years in total...." Alan Reid - View Speech
"I want to speak in support of amendment 10, to which I am a signatory. It is important to set the debate in context. In 2010, the Government inherited an economic mess from the previous Government, including a huge budget deficit, which is why difficult decisions have to be taken. …..." Alan Reid - View Speech
"Well, we did not hear any policy from the hon. Lady. I can only assume that she still follows the previous Government’s borrow-and-spend policies.
I support amendment 10, rather than the Labour party’s “empty space” policy. Amendment 10 would have benefits increase in line with the increase in average earnings.
"A lot depends on where we start. If we are talking about rises matching prices or wages, it all depends on the starting point—if we pick a different starting point, we get a different result.
I was talking about the next three years. We know what the rise in average …..." Alan Reid - View Speech
"I am pleased to hear my right hon. Friend say that there will be discretionary housing payments to take into account particular circumstances. I draw his attention to the particular circumstances of islands and very remote communities where, because of the nature of the housing stock, there may be no …..." Alan Reid - View Speech