§ 13. Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham)What steps he is taking to ensure that pensioners receive the benefits to which they are entitled. [107200]
§ The Minister of State, Department of Social Security (Mr. Jeff Rooker)We are committed to taking action to find more effective ways of encouraging eligible pensioners to claim their entitlement to the minimum income guarantee. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said earlier, we will shortly announce our decisions on the Government-sponsored national take-up campaign. We hope to do so next week.
§ Mr. BercowI am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for that reply. However, given that it is now almost 17 months since the Secretary of State said that the NIRS2 computer breakdown, which deprived 285,000 pensioners of their just entitlements, would be resolved "in the next couple of weeks", will the right hon. Gentleman assure the House that those payments, unlike Billy Bunter's postal order, will arrive; that full interest will be paid on top of them; and that Government coffers will not profit by so much as a single penny from this woeful saga of ministerial incompetence?
§ Mr. RookerIt is not our intention that the Government should benefit from the inherited disaster of NIRS2. As the hon. Gentleman knows, because he is a regular attender at Question Time, I said a couple of weeks ago that we had not met the target of clearing the entire backlog, and that there were 83,000 people still to be paid. We are convinced that their payments will be brought fully up to date before the end of the year. We regret the delay. The compensation payments are being paid to people who have experienced delays to their pension payments. The entire saga is very much regretted. That it why it is important that we get to the bottom of it. We must make sure that we do not overload the system in future, so that it can deliver regular payments to our pensioners.
§ Mr. Lindsay Hoyle (Chorley)To solve the problem and ensure that pensioners receive the benefits to which they are entitled, would it not be easier to lift the state pension?
§ Mr. RookerI can tell my hon. Friend that it would not. We could raise the state pension to the level of the minimum income guarantee, but, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said, it would not benefit the 1.6 million people who already get it. They would lose pound for pound. Also, it would cost £3 billion to do that. As I said earlier, the average income of a single pensioner 19 in 1997–98 was £132 net. I can think, as can my hon. Friends, of much better ways of using £3 billion in the social security system, such as by targeting help at those who really need it.