Work and Pensions Committee (WPC) Chair Debbie Abrahams has written to the Pensions Minister, Torsten Bell, to request further insight on several issues the WPC is investigating as part of its pensioner poverty inquiry, including indexation of pension compensation for pre-1997 benefits.

In particular, Abrahams asked for further information on the expected impact of providing pre-1997 pension increases on public finances.

Bell previously warned that calls to use the Pension Protection Fund’s (PPF) surplus to fund inflationary increases are not as “straightforward” as suggested, amid growing calls to review the level of compensation received by PPF members and assistance from the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS), specifically in relation to the award of pre-97 indexation.

In her letter, Abrahams pointed out that the PPF told the committee in December 2024 that providing prospective pre-1997 pension increases where scheme rules allowed for that, capped at 2.5 per cent, would reduce the PPF’s reserves by £1.7bn, to £11.5bn.

The estimated cost of making the same change to FAS assistance, meanwhile, was £40m in years one to five and £93m in years six to ten.

"To help us understand this in context, could you explain the impact of this on the public finances?" she queried.

In addition to this, Abrahams asked the Minister to provide further details on the barriers to data sharing with HMRC, which would allow the government to directly target people who might be entitled to Pension Credit, as well as the process and timescale the government has set for resolving them.

She also asked the Minister to provide further insight into the trends surrounding inequality amongst pensioners, and what is driving them.

In addition to this, Abrahams asked for a breakdown of the data showing the range of state pension incomes by age and gender.

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