Skip to main content

Means Testing

Volume 449: debated on Tuesday 25 July 2006

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has to ask the Government Actuary’s Department to make an assessment of the assumptions underlying the projections of (a) public spending and (b) the extent of means testing in Cm 6841; and if he will make a statement. (83807)

The assumptions and modelling techniques underpinning the analysis contained in Security in Retirement: towards a new pensions system (Cm 6841) have been developed and refined over a number of years through a process of regular contact and validation with a range of expert organisations. In the past year these have also been scrutinised by the independent Pensions Commission who found them to be broadly comparable with their own analysis.

As part of the consultation process on Cm 6841 we will continue to engage with such organisations, including the Government Actuary’s Department, to set out and explain in detail the analysis it contained, including our projections on future public expenditure and eligibility for pension credit. We also intend to publish, prior to the introduction of legislation, the research on which our proposals are based.