§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give, in advance of the recovery of the economy, an indication of the nature of the flexible retirement arrangements referred to in paragraph 3.2 of his Department's White Paper "Growing Older".
§ Mr. RossiAs the hon. Member will be aware, an outline of one possible approach to flexible retirement arrangements in the longer-term is described in paragraph 3.12 of "Growing Older". While constraints on expenditure preclude any early progress in this direction such arrangements will be kept in view as a long-term objective.
70W
§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will elaborate on paragraph 2.4 in his Department's White Paper "Growing Older" which deals with the price protection of pensions.
§ Mr. RossiThe paragraph to which the hon. Member refers reflects our pledge to increase pensions to compensate fully for price increases over the lifetime of this Parliament. As the White Paper makes clear, it is our intention to improve on this pledge when economic circumstances permit.