Church of England (Pensions) (Hansard, 21 July 1988)

§ Mr. Michael Alison (Second Church Estates Commissioner, Representing Church Commissioners)
I beg to move, That the Church of England (Pensions) Measure, passed by the General Synod of the Church of England, be presented to Her Majesty for her Royal Assent in the form in which the said Measure was laid before Parliament. This Measure is the latest in a series of Measures designed to modernise and improve the pension provisions of those who minister in the Church of England. I shall give a few details of the pensions payable. On completion of 37 years' service, a full pension of £5,330 is available to Church of England incumbents and, as a result of clause I, the clergy scheme is extended to include deaconesses and licensed lay workers on exactly the same terms. The sum payable is reviewed annually and increased each April by at least the same proportion as the previous year's increase in the national minimum stipend for incumbents.
In addition, a capital sum of £12,900 tax-free is payable on retirement, which can clearly greatly help with the acquisition of a retirement home for members of the scheme. Further financial assistance in the form of loans at low interest rates is also available—repaid, if so desired, from the estate of the beneficiary on death. For those who do not want to purchase their own homes, the pensions board has purpose-built or other residential homes.
Widows of members of the Church of England pension scheme, which is now a non-contributory scheme, and covers the clergy and auxiliary ministry alike, are entitled to a survivorship pension equal to 60 per cent. of the pensions that their husbands would have received. In addition, every diocese has a group team assurance scheme under which widows receive a lump sum equal to three times the previous year's national minimum stipend.
Any child under 18 years of age at the time of a scheme member's death also receives a pension, as of right, until he or she reaches the age of 18. The sum is usually one sixth of the late father's pension entitlement. The pensions board can, in addition, give discretionary help to retired ministers or scheme members, their widows or widowers.
These broad provisions are, I believe, generous and highly commendable. They place the Church of England pension provisions, if not at the very top of private schemes, well into the upper quartile of such schemes. The payment of pensions now costs the Church Commissioners £39 million a year, taking the cost this year, for the first time, above the cost of stipends for working clergy. During the past five years, the commission contribution has increased no less than 73 per cent., which is way above the rate of inflation and indicate substantial real improvements for clergy pensioners.
There is, however, one area of provision about which the ecclesiastical committee has expressed regret in its report to the House, as hon. Members who have read it will note. It relates to the provision of pensions for a first spouse when a scheme member was divorced or has remarried. The General Synod took the view that, because the statutory or obligatory provision of pensions for first wives is the subject of an investigation by the Lord Chancellor's Department, it would be premature for the General Synod to go it alone, as it were, before the wider civil provision comes before the House.
1414 Some members of the ecclesiastical committee took the view that the Church of England should have been a bit bolder and set the trend rather than wait to follow it. The fact that, for better of for worse, it decided not to go it alone, although perhaps regrettable, should not be allowed to detract from the broad general qualities of the Church of England's pension arrangements that I have described, nor suffice to deem the Measure other than expedient.
The matter was explored thoroughly in the oral evidence taken by the ecclesiastical committee, and in response to vigorous probings by, among others, the hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field), the chairman of the Pensions Board, Mr. Howard Gracey, made it plain that on an ex gratia, although not non-statutory, basis, the board makes provision by way of housing and of finance for divorced wives.
It would, I think, be tedious to take the House through every clause in the Measure., particularly as it has, in the ecclesiastical committee's report, substantial explanatory notes on each clause. By providing for a unified, non-contributory scheme for incumbents and auxiliaries alike, the process of steady improvement in provision has not been neglected, as evidenced in clause 3, with the provision, for the first time, of pensions for widowers, in clause 5 of lump sums payments on death—in addition to those payable on retirement—and provision for early retirement otherwise than on grounds of ill health, which is already provided for. These are all good grounds in themselves for commending the Measure to the House.

§ Mr. Frank Field (Birkenhead)
The right hon. Member for Selby (Mr. Alison) was kind enough to refer to the debate in the ecclesiastical committee, when several of us raised the status of divorced clergy wives. He correctly reported the committee's decision and its regret that the pensions board would not act imaginatively. The Church's behaviour on that is, to put it mildly, rather pathetic. Many of us look to it to take the lead, not to follow the secular state.
The right hon. Gentleman rightly drew attention to the commissioners' impressive record of building up pension entitlements for the clergy and other Church workers. The Measure has been a long time coming—so long that some people thought that it would have gone through by now, and have made retirement plans on the basis of it being on the statute book. I shall not take up further time and prevent its enactment.

§ Mr. Simon Hughes (Southwark and Bermondsey)
I will be even more brief than the hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field). The Measure is welcome. I confirm that it is the general view that the provisions of pensions by the Church is generous, good and fair. The Measure helps in that. I also want to flag up a linked issue to which the right hon. Member for Selby (Mr. Alison) referred once in passing. This relates to the other side of the coin. The other matter that concerns the clergy and their families and for which they plan during their working lives is where they will live after retirement.
Another matter that is not quite as certain or secure sometimes is adequacy of accommodation for clergy in their retirement. I hope that the Church will complement its good work in this Measure by ensuring that all those 1415 who give their lives to the ordained ministry can be assured, for their entire retirement, of adequate and suitable housing of a type and in a place that they wish. That is equally important, and where it has not been met and achieved, it lacks the provision that pensions now have by virtue of this consolidating and expanded measure.