Parliamentarians have elected Debbie Abrahams to chair the Work and Pensions Committee which will scrutinise the work of the government and regulators in relation to pensions among others.  

The Labour MP who has represented Oldham East and Saddleworth for 13 years beat Neil Coyle and David Pinto-Duschinsky to the post. She has been a member of the committee for eight years and during three was shadow work and pensions secretary and shadow minister for disabled people.  

Abrahams has a background in public health, chairing the Rochdale Primary Care Trust from 2002 until 2007, with her listed achievements centering on welfare and disabled people. She succeeds Sir Stephen Timms, who is now the minister for social security and disability, precluding him from a role on the committee.   

The role of Work and Pensions Committee chair came to greater public attention when Baron Frank Field held the post during a time of widespread defined benefit underfunding, grilling regulators and company bosses and regularly commenting in the press. Most notably, the late MP for Birkenhead was in a public stand-off with Sir Philip Green, the former owner of BHS, over the demise of the retailer and its pension fund. Sir Philip eventually agreed to pay £363m into the scheme of the company he had sold to Dominic Chappell for £1. Field also co-chaired a joint inquiry into Carillion with Rachel Reeves.  

The committee is still awaiting a government response to a recent inquiry into defined benefit pensions in which MPs called for a change to the Pensions Regulator’s statutory objectives.