Cost of Living: Pensioners

Lord Davies of Brixton Excerpts

Thursday 26th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con)]

I confirm that the Department for Work and Pensions requires local authorities to provide management information returns detailing their spend and the volume of awards made for food, energy and water bills. MI returns for the scheme, running from 6 October 2021 to 31 March 2022, will also detail grant spend and the volume of awards made to families with and without children. This will be published in the coming months.

[Lord Davies of Brixton (Lab)]

My Lords, does the noble Baroness understand that pensioners’ incomes, this time, this year, are 5% lower in real terms than they were last year? Part of the reason for that is the excessive delay between the index and when increases are paid. Is it not time to fully computerise the state pension so that increases can meet the challenge of inflation?

[Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con)]

As I have said, the state pension uprating relies on legacy IT systems that must be coded well in advance of the uprating. The noble Lord makes a good point about the impact of good IT systems; I am not going to argue with that. Additionally, state pension rates need to be confirmed in advance of uprating because claimants can claim their state pension four months before they reach state pension age and they need certainty about the value of their entitlement.