THIS week, Parliament debated the Pensions Bill. It will bring in protection to more than 10 million individuals who pay into company pension schemes.

It will end the scandal of workers like those at BKL Fittings who saw the savings built up over a lifetime of work disappear overnight.

Funded by a levy on pension operators, it will mean a pension promise made will be a pension promise kept.

Welcomed by Age Concern, the protection measures in the Bill come on top of other measures brought in to help older people.

Winter fuel payments, free TV licences and the Pensioner Credit have put extra money in pensioners' pockets.

I am proud to say 1.6 million pensioners have been lifted out of poverty, with average pensioner households £1,250 a year better off. But there is more to be done.

The Pension Bill proposes to extend choice to people about deferring their pension date.

Those who choose to wait before collecting their pension will be entitled to a lump sum of as much as £30,000 for a five-year delay. That is a significant figure and will really help people start their retirement with the sort of security and freedom they deserve.

LOCAL council tax levels have been set and the increases are lower than in previous years thanks to the extra £340 million Chancellor Gordon Brown gave to local authorities to keep down bills.

Even so, there is a review under way into the funding of local government due to report this summer.

I hope it helps us build a system of raising the money our services deserve in a fair way and from a range of sources.

Income, spending, business and inheritance all contribute taxes to support our public services and it is right an element of tax is raised against properties. It is getting the balance right that is important.

But I won't take any lessons about local taxation or services from Conservative leader Michael Howard, who introduced the poll tax when he was last in power and whose Redditch councillors are scrapping free bus passes.

Jacqui Smith MP