Welfare Reform Bill

With great respect, I do not think that I can let the noble Lord get away with that. The history of this Government shows that we have supported pensioners through a whole raft of policy initiatives and resources. We have supported and sought to help pensioners throughout the time of this Government. A figure springs to mind: if we had simply rolled forward the policies of the previous Government, pensioners in aggregate would be something like £30 billion a year worse off. We have a strong record in that regard but there is more to do. We need to work to ensure that there is full take-up of the facilities and arrangements that exist to support pensioners.