§ 4. Mr. Leadbitterasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, taking the retirement pension for single and married persons as 100 at the date of the last increase, what are the values at the latest available date.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for Social Services (Mr. Paul Dean)The value was 98.5 at January 1973.
§ Mr. LeadbitterIs the Minister aware that those figures do not reflect the serious 211 situation of old-age pensioners? Have not his right hon. Friends recently refused to help old-age pensioners with the cost of television licences and failed to protect old-age pensioners against the pressures of increasing prices? Will he therefore treat this matter with greater urgency?
§ Mr. DeanThe figure I have given is entirely accurate. It means that just over 1p in the pound has been lost from the real value of the pension. As the hon. Gentleman knows, for the first time the Government are committed to an annual review of pensions.
§ Sir B. Rhys WilliamsWill my hon. Friend ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he introduces his Budget this afternoon to announce a sharp increase in earnings-related contributions to national insurance so that when the up-rating Bill is introduced in the autumn the pensioners can have a bumper increase?
§ Mr. DeanI am sure that my hon. Friend would not expect me to have a moment of glory by anticipating my right hon. Friend's statement, even if I knew what was in it.