Saving Gateway Accounts Bill

I just want to be clear about the numbers of people involved. Our estimate is that 8 million people will qualify for a saving gateway account. We estimate that about 4.5 million working-age people on lower incomes will not qualify through passporting, 2.7 million of whom would qualify if they decided to take up the qualifying benefits. My suggestion is that if they are not at the moment taking up qualifying benefits to which they are entitled, they might not want to fill in a means test. That leaves out 1.8 million people, who represent a real issue. We would like to provide assistance to them, just as we would like the 2.7 million people to get the benefits to which they are entitled and to consider opening a saving gateway account. I hope that this intervention has provided some information so that we are all taking about the same numbers.