Gavin Williamson, MP for South Staffordshire, yesterday challenged the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) on what steps it is taking to help pensioners.
Gavin put the question to the Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP, during the afternoon's Questions.
In response, the Minister of State, Mr. Steve Webb MP, said: “Even where we have had to take difficult decisions on welfare spending, we have systematically protected pensioners from the impacts of changes.
“Indeed, we have gone further: we have permanently increased the cold weather payment to £25, and the basic state pension is now a higher share of average earnings than at any time in the past 20 years.”
In his supplementary question, Gavin asked the Minister what the Department is doing to further maximise the amount that pensioners receive in the future.
Gavin said: “Unlike the Opposition, we on this side of the House recognise that it is not right to increase basic state pensions by 75p: we give proper increases. What more is the Minister doing to ensure that retirement incomes continue to rise in the future?”
Mr. Steve Webb MP said: “As my hon. Friend knows, our goal is to have a retirement income based on the foundation of a simple, single, decent state pension—the legislation on this was announced in the Queen’s Speech—complemented by automatic enrolment into a workplace pension, so people have a pension based on their national insurance and a pension of their own with a contribution from both the employer and the taxpayer. That is a good combination to build on.”