HC Deb 13 March 1967 vol 743 cc21-2
11. Mr. Ridsdale

asked the Minister of Social Security what action she proposes to take to correct the imbalance reported in the Ministry of Labour Gazette for February 1967 for pensioner group of households, averaging one and a half persons per household, which shows an excess of expenditure (150s. a week) over income (137s. a week).

Miss Herbison

I would refer the hon. Gentleman to my reply on 6th March to the hon. Lady, the Member for Tyne-mouth (Dame Irene Ward).—[Vol. 742, c. 184–5.]

Mr. Ridsdale

As many pensioners now have to eat into their savings, does the right hon. Lady think that it is fair that such pensioners should pay an education charge on the rates? When will the Government honour their election pledge to take teachers' salaries off the rates so as to prevent these pensioners having to pay this charge?

Miss Herbison

The question of the cost of education will be answered if the hon. Gentleman puts down a Question to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science. On the question of pensioners eating into their savings, the supplementary benefits which began on 28th November have made possible much more generous treatment of capital, so old people now do not have to eat into their savings at the same rate as they had previously under the hon. Gentleman's Government. Also, if old people have quite large savings it is not wrong to expect them to use some of them in their retirement.

Dame Irene Ward

Is the right hon. Lady aware, however, that the Answer which she gave to me was unsatisfactory? Is she aware, with regard to people with small savings, that her answer about large savings does not fit in with the Answer which she gave my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Knutsford (Sir W. Bromley-Davenport)? Is she aware that, with an ever-increasing rise in the cost of living, the anxiety of people with small savings who have to dig into those savings is terrible? When will we get one of these reports on which people have been sitting for such a long time?

Mr. Speaker

Order. Questions must be reasonably brief.

Miss Herbison

On this occasion, we did not wait for reports. We have already dealt with this question of elderly people. If old people have no other source of income, they can have £800 of savings and still get the full benefits of supplementary pensions, so the improvements which we have given to old people are considerable.