§ 14. Mr. Houghtonasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance what steps he is taking to improve the qualifying conditions and amount of the non-contributory pension for persons over 70 years of age.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterNone, Sir.
§ Mr. HoughtonIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that his Answer has a very important bearing on Question No. 7? These people over 70 who have been non-contributors are still conditioned to the old means test and are still on the old rate of pension, subject only to a slight improvement on the withdrawal of the tobacco concession. Will the right hon. Gentleman not now do something tangible for the remaining number of these people—only about 135,000 of them—who will not number more than 250,000 as being likely to benefit if the right hon. Gentleman improved their conditions?
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterNo, Sir. These pensions are administered on a means test by the National Assistance Board and the people concerned are, therefore, already looked after and can be more flexibly looked after—as I said when replying to Question No. 7—by the exercise of the Board's discretion. It was never intended that these pensions should continue indefinitely, and the Act provided that people who became 70 after 30th September, 1961, should not become entitled to them at all. This is, therefore, an obsolescent provision.