Speeches by Ali.

“Are you confident that the Government are developing the appropriate plans to smooth out these challenges?”

“Going back to the gender pensions gap report, you mentioned the comparison with OECD countries. What are other countries doing, that could be applicable or adaptable to a UK context, that we are not doing but could do?”

“What should be done about that? It is clearly a problem that cannot be solved by just changing the contribution amount.”

“Thank you. Daniella, do you have anything to add on this? I also wanted to ask you about the gender pensions gap report.”

“Chris Curry said to this Committee said that the Pensions Commission would need to look at how different parts of the pensions system interact and vary across different parts of the population. You have already touched on some of this. Can you say more about how the commission could go about doing that? Also, Chair, be…”

“Yes, please send them in. Thank you.”

“Is there any work going on with you and the Department to do exactly those things?”

“That takes me to the point about the advice and support. Over the last decade we have seen the usual organisations, like CAB and others, having their resources cut. People at that point in their lives—particularly those who are vulnerable—often need support to access benefits they may be eligible for, but the bureaucra…”

“Yes. So you have geographical inequality, you have disability-related inequality, and then presumably there are specific other groups that are going to be worse off. The system has built-in disadvantages that feed through into the future. What specific recommendations would you make in terms of building that dynamic sy…”

“Do the other witnesses have any further suggestions on what else could be done?”

“But in terms of the drivers and the reasons behind why they are doing it.”

“Are any of you aware of anything the Government are doing on this issue to understand it better or of awareness among policymakers in the Department?”

“I have one final point, which is in relation to organisations that are contracted that have deep expertise, whether in relation to disabilities or youth unemployment and so on. What are you going to do to make sure that the relationships and expertise that is there is not lost? We saw 10 or 15 years ago careers service…”

“Sorry, I meant people who are in work and who want to engage, because we have seen good examples but one of the organisations in my own constituency got closed down. They were doing good work.”

“From the world of work as opposed to recruited to do that?”

“How systematically are you getting employers connected into jobcentres and working with careers services so that they can act alongside your coaches and careers advisers as employer mentors?”

“How confident are you that you can make those changes over the next nine months?”

“It would be helpful to get some hard data on what trends you expect to see. I know you have dashboards and so on to look at that, but I mean collecting local data and what that looks like nationally so that we can see the impacts of the changes and the reforms that have been made. I also want to come to careers service…”

“Just on that, what are you doing in areas where you see less positive results in spreading good practice? Are you co-ordinating interconnections and with employers?”

“In outcomes terms, what do you expect to see in terms of these changes in relation to overall outcomes and the number of people who are able to get the right support to get into work? What are the national objectives, the changes you expect to see in terms of more positive outcomes?”