Pensions (Hansard, 17 July 2003)

§ Mr. Webb
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) pursuant to Working and Saving for Retirement: Action on Occupational Pensions, if his plans to ease the indexation requirements will apply to an individual's accrued rights prior to the implementation of his reforms; [121119]
(2) pursuant to Working and Saving for Retirement: Action on Occupational Pensions, if it is his intention to allow firms to protect part of an individual's pension contribution at 5 per cent. and the rest at 2.5 per cent. [121120]

§ Malcolm Wicks
As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State made clear in his statement to the House on 11 June 2003,Official Report, column 682, the proposals in the Action Plan for Occupational Pensions for relaxing the mandatory indexation requirements will not affect pensions in payment, nor the value of existing accrued rights. The value of 5 per cent. protection to the date the new mandatory minimum cap takes effect must be safeguarded.
As he also made clear, the proposed changes to Section 67 of the Pensions Act will allow schemes significantly more scope to achieve simplification by restructuring benefits. Schemes should be able to translate accrued entitlement into rights of equivalent value provided they continue to meet the applicable legislative requirements, including those concerning annual increases in accrued rights.
Subject to the indexation requirements, it will continue to be for schemes to determine the level to which an individual's pension in payment is protected from inflation. Some schemes choose—and will continue to choose—to protect members' pensions at a level above the legislative requirement.

§ Mr. Heald
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has to issue(a) a further response to the consultation on the Pensions Green Paper (Cm 5677) and (b) a White Paper on pensions; and if he will make statement. [126466]

§ Malcolm Wicks
The Government published its response to the Pensions Green Paper on 11 June 2003. The document, Simplicity, security and choice: Working and saving for retirement—Action on occupational pensions (Cm 5677), sets out the timetable of our reform programme, on which we will make further announcements in due course.