Elderly People (Hansard, 8 March 1988)

§ 4. Sir Fergus Montgomery
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what information he has on the proportion of gross domestic product expended in the United Kingdom on support for elderly people.

§ Mr. Moore
In 1983, 9.6 per cent. of gross domestic product was spent on support for elderly people. This figure includes all forms of support for elderly people, except for health care.

§ Sir Fergus Montgomery
Will my right hon. Friend compare the effect on pensioners' incomes and savings of the high-spending, high-inflation policies pursued by the Labour Government from 1974 to 1979 with the low-inflation, prudent policies pursued by this Government since 1979?

§ Mr. Moore
My hon. Friend is right to draw attention to the reality, which is sometimes ignored by Opposition Members, that half pensioners' total net income in the United Kingdom does not come from the state basic pension. The level of inflation under the previous Labour Government was a contributory factor to the fact that the increase in the real net income of pensioners was only 0.6 per cent. a year, compared with 2.7 per cent. a year under this Government. [Interruption.] The comparison is, of course, one that the Opposition would like to shout down as the contrast is so startling, as are comparisons between the successful economic policies of this Government and the appalling inflation level that pensioners faced under the previous Government.

§ Mr. Speaker
Mr. Haynes—and a happy birthday.

§ Mr. Haynes
The Secretary of State will not have to bother when he is elderly. He is well-breeched. Government Ministers are all appearing on television and getting fat TV fees, but the elderly people in my constituency and in those of my right hon. and hon. Friends really suffer under this Administration. Why do the Government not pull their fingers out and do something about it?

§ Mr. Moore
I know that the hon. Gentleman, who I regard as an old friend—[Interruption.]—will enjoy on 175 his birthday my friendship and my concern that, with his undoubted commitment to the interests of those in need, he will not share with me the distress that he must have suffered when Labour was last in office.

§ Dame Jill Knight
Will my right hon. Friend take this opportunity to pay tribute to that part of the private sector that provides residential homes for elderly people in Britain? Will he confirm that without that help the National Health Service would indeed be badly stretched to cope with these people?

§ Mr. Moore
The support and help for those in residential and nursing homes is a combined effort between the private and public sectors. If my memory serves me aright, about 120,000 old people are in residential homes run by local authorities, and about 100,000 are in private sector homes. We ought to commend all those who seek to give old people decent accommodation, whether public or private.

§ Mrs. Beckett
Will the Minister tell us how many elderly people would recognise from his description the fact that the basic pension went up by 20 per cent. in real terms under the last Labour Government and by only 5 per cent. in real terms under the present Government, and that the improvements in general income to which he referred come directly from the new pension schemes introduced by that Government and halved by his Government? Does he recognise that the thrust of Government policy, with its reduction of rights, increased means, testing and direction towards charities, is particularly distressing to elderly people who have been there before?

§ Mr. Moore
The hon. Lady forgets, as the Opposition continue to do, that we should be interested in the real well-being of old people and not simply in which Government contribute to it. If, as a consequence, we analyse the real position of old people, it is clear that the Opposition should never have the temerity even to raise the issue in the House. The reality is that old people in Britain were cheated in every sense of the word when the Labour party was in office. Since we have been in office their incomes have improved in real terms and in comparison to the working population, while their incomes declined against the working population while the Labour party was in office.