§ 47. Mr. COCKSasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what would be the estimated annual cost of a permanent scheme to increase the old age pension at 65 to £1 for single persons and 30s. a week for married men conditional on retirement from work; and whether he can give an estimate as to the number of persons who might reasonably be expected to accept the conditions?
§ Mr. PETHICK-LAWRENCEIt is estimated that the additional cost of such an extension of the present system of old age pensions might amount to £15 231 millions in the first year, assuming, as is evidently necessary, that at the outset all insured persons over 65 who were available for work, whether actually in employment or not, would be entitled to participate. The corresponding charge after 10 years would be about £25 millions and the increase would continue for a long period. The number of claimants at the outset is assumed, after a careful survey of the probabilities, to be about 450,000, of whom however by no means all would be persons actually in regular employment, while the number of vacancies that would result from the retirement of such persons would be likely to be even smaller.
Viscountess ASTORDid not the present Government, before the last election, promise to increase these pensions?