Lords to question Office for Budget Responsibility representatives
The House of Lords Committee on Public Service and Demographic Change will next week take evidence on the fiscal impact of the ageing society. They will hear from a panel of experts including Dr Martin Weale, External Member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee and part-time professor at Queen Mary University of London and Tom Josephs, Head of Staff at the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Also giving evidence will be Kayte Lawton, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research and James Sefton, Professor of Economics at Imperial College, London.
The Committee will quiz the witnesses on how the political demands of an ageing society, including a growing number of older voters, can be balanced with a need to take tough decisions about the state's funding of services for the elderly.
Their aim is to consider whether the Government should deal with an ageing society by reining in the costs of public services; reducing demand for public services; increasing employment among older people by raising the retirement age; or raising more money through tax – or by other solutions.
The Committee also plans to ask how the Government should respond to the Dilnot report, which proposed a cap of £35,000 on the amount people should pay for care costs out of their own pockets. The Committee is interested in whether accepting these recommendations would risk creating dangerous future spending commitments, or whether they can be afforded.
The evidence session will take place from 10.00am on Tuesday 23 October in Committee Room 2A of the House of Lords and will be webcast live at www.parliamentlive.tv.
The evidence session is also open to the public. Journalists wishing to attend should go to Parliament's Cromwell Green Entrance and should allow time for security screening.
