§ 40. Captain ERSKINE-BOLSTasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether any estimate can be formed of the cost of old age and widows' pensions in 10, 20, 30, and 40 years' time, respectively, on the basis of present arrangements?
§ Major ELLIOTI would refer my hon. and gallant Friend to the information given in paragraphs 417 to 445 of the report of the Committee on National Expenditure, where it is stated that the cost to the Exchequer for old age pensions of all kinds and for widows' and orphans' pensions will be £68,000,000 in 1940–41, and that it will rise to over £80,000,000 a year in 30 years' time. For reasons which are explained by the committee in their report, circumstances are at present such that it is undesirable to attempt to make precise estimates covering a long period of time, and I am not therefore in a position to give figures at 10-year intervals as desired by my hon. and gallant Friend.