NAO Report: Chancellor's Own Rigged Question Shows Twice as Many Affected - Liberal Democrats

9.07.00pm GMT Tue 9th Mar 2004

Commenting on today's NAO report showing the Government's estimates of the impact of the pensions lifetime allowance would affect an extra 10,000 not 5,000 people, Lord Matthew Oakeshott, Liberal Democrat pensions spokesman in the House of Lords, said: "Even on Gordon Brown's own rigged and narrowly defined question, twice as many people are affected as the Treasury initially said."

"When assessing the impact of the pensions lifetime allowance, it's not enough to only look at the amount of extra people affected. A look at the total number of people affected in the next few years shows the truer, bigger picture."