Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-01-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his contribution of 20 June 2011, Official Report, column 52, on the Pensions Bill [Lords], that the Government would consider transitional arrangements, what transitional arrangements the Government considered.

Justin Tomlinson

The Government considered retaining the original timetable for increasing the qualifying age for Pension Credit minimum guarantee to 65 by 2020 for a temporary period, in addition to alternative timetabling options for increasing the State Pension age to lessen the impact on women facing the largest increases relative to the original timetable. The transitional arrangements brought forward by the Government capped the maximum delay at 18 months rather than two years, at a cost of £1.1 billion.