Parliament.uk now provides records of
parliamentary debates in the future – prospective Hansard – as well as historic
Hansard from the past. A quick search finds this interesting insight into how auto-enrolment
will end means-testing, and see the state pension and National Insurance phased
out.
Wednesday 11 December 2052,
2.30pm.
The Secretary of State for Savings and Longer Life (Mr. John Potter): Mr. Speaker,
may I first pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Webb of West Bromwich, who is still, I
believe, an active member of the other place, and whose foresight and vision
led us to the happy situation we are in today. The latest Real Time Information
from His Majesty’s Revenues show that in 2051/52 90% of all eligible people in
work are paying in to a workplace pension scheme. And that of those retiring
last year three quarters had a workplace auto-enrolment pension worth an
average of £1083 a month.
At this time
of year it is traditional for the Secretary of State for Savings and Longer
Life to stand here and tell this House how much he – or, more often, she [hon.
Members: Hear, hear] – plans to increase the state pensions paid to the generation
who suffered greatly in the early 21st century recessions and whom,
we will all agree, deserve our gratitude for the hardships they bore to pull us
out of the quagmire of deficit and debt which was left – and I say it quite frankly
– by successive governments of all colours and of none.
That is why the
state pension on which many older pensioners relied has been raised of late –
after years of neglect by other parties – by more even than the 2.5% a year guaranteed
by the triple lock, originally introduced by the noble Lord, Lord Webb and cleverly
inverted by the Rainbow Alliance government in 2033.
But today I am
pleased to announce that this ancient safeguard is no longer needed. The auto-enrolment
system has been so successful that I can call a halt to these yearly, unfunded
bonuses paid by hardworking families. And Mr. Speaker I can go further. The
strength of the auto-enrolment scheme and the more than £1000 a month it
provides – and for many it is of course a lot more than that – the £1000 and
more a month it provides means that the Government can maintain the state
pension at its current level of £1512 a month without decreasing the real
incomes of pensioners overall. And those aged 72, now looking forward to their first
pension payment, can do so knowing that they will be getting more in total than
their older siblings got last year.
I can also announce
that means-tested help with rates, rents, living costs, travel, prescriptions, 6G
comms, and winter fuel, will also be phased out. Now that most pensioners rely
on their own thrift, it would be unfair on them to provide a similar income for
those who deliberately chose again and again to un-enrol from the pension opportunities
first provided forty years ago.
At the same
time I can announce a reform which has been many years – too many years for
some – in the making. The old-fashioned and so 20th century National
Insurance scheme is to be wound up and its funds passed to the Chancellor to
absorb in the national accounts. ….I give way to my hon. Friend
The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Ms Eloise
Transom): If it is helpful Mr. Speaker I can inform the House that from 6 April
2053 the 14% National Insurance contributions paid by employees will be added
to the general rate of income tax and the 15% paid by employers will be similarly
subsumed into corporation tax.
The Secretary of State for Savings and
Longer Life: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that timely intervention. Because,
Mr. Speaker, I can go further. In future years the increasing income of
pensioners will be provided by the growth in the average auto-enrolment
pension. By 2062 – in ten short years – that pension which they have proudly
earned for themselves will exceed the value of the state pension until now generously
provided by others.
Mr. Speaker,
by the end of this century, which I hope I, if not Lord Webb himself [hon.
Members: hear, hear, hear], may live to see, we can look forward to the time when
the crushing and humiliating dependency on the state of our older people is but
a distant 20th century memory and the pension system of our great
country is ready for the second half of the 21st century pride and self-reliance. A time in
which our older people can stand tall and retire on an income which, even when it
is less than they have now, they will at least know is all of their own making
and not paid for by younger hard working families.
Mr. Speaker,
my officials tell me that on the 200th anniversary of the state
pension, in 2108, this House – though probably not even I! – will also be able
to celebrate its burial. That will be the ultimate achievement of auto-enrolment and the Noble Lord, Lord Webb [Hon. Members: hear, hear, hear. Cheers. Rowdy
stamping].
Mr. Speaker: Order. The Motion is that in
view of the success of self-reliance and auto-enrolment the state pension be frozen
forthwith with a view to phasing out by 2108; the National Insurance Fund be
wound up and the surplus absorbed in the national accounts; and National Insurance
contributions be added to general taxation at their present rates from 2053/54.
Question put and agreed to.
