§ 15. Mr. H. Hyndasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance what is the average age of widows who only get a special pension of 10s. per week; how many of them are on National Assistance; and what percentage the latter figure is of the total number on this pension.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterI assume that the hon. Member refers to widows who do not satisfy the conditions for National Insurance widow's benefit but receive the 10s. widow's basic pension derived from their husbands' insurance under the old Contributory Pensions Acts. The average age of these widows is now about 53, and it is estimated that about 9,500 of them, that is, about 9 per cent, of the total, are receiving National Assistance.
§ Mr. HyndIs the Minister still adamant about not increasing the amount paid to these widows? Will he try to do something to end this anomaly?
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterThe hon. Member will be aware of the fact that these are ladies who, in general, receive a pension in circumstances in which identically placed widows who derive their title from the National Insurance Act receive none. To increase this pension would therefore be to widen the anomaly.
§ 17. Mr. E. Johnsonasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance whether, when the new improved scales of National Assistance become operative, he will increase the rates of war pension and allowance payable to aged and incapacitated war widows so as to maintain the preference recently awarded to that special category of war widow.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterAs my hon. Friend will be aware, war widows over 70 are from the beginning of this month receiving a new grant of 10s. a week. In addition, the National Assistance Board has recently indicated that it will ordinarily disregard 10s. 6d. of a war widow's pension, and this figure will be increased to 15s. a week if Parliament approves the related proposals which I announced on 15th June. In these ways the preferential treatment of war widows is, in my view, being preserved.
§ Mr. JohnsonIs it not a fact that as a result of these very welcome proposed 841 increases in National Assistance a widow over 70 years of age will receive exactly the same as a widow under that age? Consequently, it would seem that preferential treatment will disappear.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterI do not follow my hon. Friend's argument, which I should like to consider further when I read HANSARD. The facts of the matter are clearly set out in my main Answer, which I would ask my hon. Friend to consider.