Harriett Baldwin welcomes the Govnernment's uprating of the pension credit which will help women in particular. Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con): The Minister will be aware that many more women than men are on pension credit and that about 60% of pensioners are women. Does this increase not therefore disproportionately help women? Steve Webb: My hon. Friend is quite right. Not only does the pensions boost help women, but the pension credit boost helps women. Reflecting on the Opposition’s question about the combined effect of our measures, it is worth saying that the one measure excluded from that question was the VAT rise. They excluded that because men, on average, have higher incomes and higher spending. In particular, they have higher spending on VATables, so the impact of the VAT rise hits men more than women. For some reason, the Opposition did not count that measure. | Hansard