Saving Gateway Accounts Bill

I shall be withdrawing the amendment, but I thank noble Lords for taking part in this short debate, even if their support has been qualified in various and, in some respects, conflicting ways. As always, I am grateful for my noble friend’s courtesy and consideration. I am reassured by the point that both he and the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, made about the reserve power, should that be regarded as desirable in future. I return to the simple point that a savings habit is not about moral fibre; in the end, it is to help people acquire savings. The question is: what happens if you are someone who struggles through their working life—for example, a woman who has been a lone parent and been bumping along on various forms of income support and all the rest—and enter retirement with no savings at all? It is too late to revisit choices that you might have made previously, but your need for that modest financial buffer remains. My noble friend is right to say that we hope that will be a diminishing group, given the initiatives that the Government are proceeding with, but currently the Government have no offer available to pensioners who enter retirement or to current pensioners who have no savings. That is, unless they use an offer like the winter fuel payment and do not spend it on keeping themselves warm but save it—hoard it—in ways that we would not want them to do, given all the evidence about hypothermia. There is evidence that there are 30,000 winter deaths a year from hypothermia beyond the standardised mortality figures. Instead of using it to keep themselves warm and avoid hypothermia, they save it to replace the cooker or the washing machine. That is not a choice that is decent to ask them to make. I take my noble friend’s point. I understand where he is coming from: that this was designed as a benefit for those of working age. However, to some degree it shows a failure to understand the situation of someone who has had a rough life and is entering a difficult retirement without any reserves. In that case, something such as this would give them a desirable cushion. However, given that we can revisit this in future—some of us may well do so—I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 11 withdrawn. Amendment 12 not moved.