Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP
West Edinburgh Times (Child Trust Fund week, pensions proposals & minimum holiday entitlement increased)
Child Trust Fund Week took place last month. It was designed to encourage all parents and other family members to top up the funds in their children’s accounts and help raise awareness of the Child Trust Fund which gives every new baby a financial asset that will grow as they grows – giving them a next egg by the time they reach 18.
I believe that all children should have a stake in the future. Since the Child Trust Fund was introduced in April 2005, 3618 accounts have been opened in this constituency and I would like to encourage all parents to use their Child Trust Fund vouchers to ensure their children have savings behind them when they reach 18.
The Government’s pension proposals will see around 500,000 more women between the ages of 46 and 56 across the UK getting a full pension as a result of the fairer deal in the Pensions Bill. Currently, only around 30% of women retire with a full basic state pension compared with around 85% of men. The Bill will introduce new weekly credits that count towards your pension if you are caring for children or the seriously disabled and cut the number of years people need to build up entitlement to a full basic state pension. I am very pleased that we are able to press on with these important changes in the Pensions Bill and I’ll keep you posted on how it gets on in Parliament.
Finally, under new proposals that I published this month, 400,000 workers in Scotland will benefit from increased workers’ holiday entitlement from 20 days per year to 28 days. That is 15% of Scotland’s overall workforce.
New research has shown that up to six million workers in Britain would benefit from an extra eight days holiday each year under the plans. The groups standing to benefit most from the changes are vulnerable workers including women, part-time workers, low-paid workers and workers from minority ethnic communities.
People work hard and deserve a decent break. We want to make sure everyone gets the holiday they are entitled to
These proposals will ensure that some of our most vulnerable workers will no longer be discriminated against when it comes to holidays.
The Department of Trade and Industry is launching a second public consultation on the implementation of the changes. Statutory annual leave entitlement would be increased in two stages, rising from 20 to 24 days on 1st October 2007 (pro rata for part-timers), and from 24 to 28 days on 1st October 2008.
