§ 3. Mr. McAdamasked the Minister of National Insurance the estimated cost of providing pensions to insured, spinsters at the age of 55 years and to the wives of insured male workers who are 55 years of age at the date upon which their husbands reach pensionable age and retire from employment.
§ Mr. J. GriffithsThe cost of providing pensions of 26s. a week for spinsters at age 55 cannot be considered in isolation from the consequential changes which it would entail in the whole insurance scheme. It would, for instance, be necessary to give equivalent pensions to other insured women and to widows of the same age. The total additional cost in relation to the classes with rights under the present scheme would be of the order of £26 million a year. I would remind my hon. Friend that when the new scheme operates dependancy allowances of 16s. will be payable in respect of wives under 60 of pensioners who have retired. To provide such payments for wives now at age 55 would cost about £2million a year. All these figures of cost would rise substantially when the new scheme was in full operation.