Social Security

I can give my hon. Friend that assurance. It was a scandal that so many pensioners were on a means-tested benefit of £69 a week in 1997. We must not head in that direction, where a large number of pensioners were below the generally recognised poverty threshold. That will be a key criterion in our package of reforms, and I am sure that she has been encouraged by Lord Turner’s comments about maintaining the pension credit. To meet the challenges of an ageing society and permanently eradicate poverty in retirement, we must address inequalities during people’s working lives. That is why our record in tackling child poverty is so important; that is why we are committed to supporting families in work; that is why our welfare reforms and aspiration of an 80 per cent. employment rate are so important; and that is why we want to see a modern, active and inclusive welfare state. When I made my statement on today’s benefit uprating to this House in December, the hon. Member for Eastbourne (Mr. Waterson) asked, in a slightly sceptical tone, about our proposals for welfare reform. As I said that we would, we set out in the Green Paper in January our ambitious and radical proposals for a welfare state that lets people move out of poverty rather than a welfare state that institutionalises dependency. We want a million fewer people to claim incapacity benefit, a million more older people to be in work and 300,000 lone parents to be able to come off benefits. The hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond), whom I am delighted to see in his place this afternoon, welcomed the proposals and congratulated my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on"““grasping the nettle of incapacity benefit reform””.—[Official Report, 24 January 2006; Vol. 441, c. 1310.]" He pledged to support the proposals and to work towards a consensus. That is the consensus that we want to build. I hope that it will not be too long before Opposition Members finally have the grace to support the new deal, which is responsible for helping more than 1.5 million people into work. We will strengthen the new deal so that it offers learning agreements for teenagers in eight areas of the country, extends the new deal pilots to help lone parents back into work and pilots personal action plans for those unemployed for six months or more. For the sixth successive year, we will freeze non-dependent deductions to relieve the pressure on low-income parents who house their adult children, which will benefit some 30,000 benefit recipients. We want a welfare system that breaks down the barriers to opportunity and enables all those who can work to do so. Our ““Age Positive”” campaign has promoted the business case for age diversity in the work force. This year we shall legislate for the first time against age discrimination in the workplace. A new default retirement age will mean employers can no longer compel an employee to retire before the age of 65 without objective justification. In 2011, an evidence-based review will consider the possibility that the default retirement age should go altogether.