Lord Livermore (Lab)

That was not a commitment I gave. What I said in Committee, and say again today, is this is not the right Bill to change the student loan repayment system. We will, however, look at ways to make the system we inherited from the previous Government fairer. That remains the position. I turn, finally, to Amendments 12, 13, 14, 15, 26, 27, and 28, tabled by the noble Baronesses, Lady Neville-Rolfe, Lady Altmann, and Lady Kramer, and the noble Lords, Lord Altrincham, Lord Londesborough and Lord de Clifford. These amendments seek to increase the value of the cap or to uprate the cap by the percentage change in the consumer prices index or retail prices index. The purpose of the Bill is to cap an unchecked relief which predominantly benefits higher and additional rate taxpayers while protecting ordinary workers using salary sacrifice to make pension contributions. All employees using salary sacrifice will still benefit from national insurance contributions relief on £2,000 of contributions made via salary sacrifice. For a basic rate taxpayer, this is an additional £160 of relief relative to employees who do not use salary sacrifice. The Government will keep the level of the cap under review, but we do not agree with the approach set out in these amendments, which seeks to uprate the cap in line with inflation. Automatic indexation of the cap would introduce a mechanism inconsistent with the treatment of other major pension tax reliefs, which are not routinely indexed. The Government’s view remains that the future level of the cap in the next decade and beyond is for Budgets in those decades. In light of the positions I have set out, I hope noble Lords may feel able not to press their amendments.