§ 3.4 p.m.
§ Baroness LLEWELYN-DAVIES of HASTOEMy Lords, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Social Services is making a Statement in another place on social security benefits. With the leave of the House, I will arrange for it to be circulated in the Official Report. This has been agreed through the usual channels, in view of the complex nature of the Statement.
§ Following is the Statement referred to:
§ "I will, with permission, Mr. Speaker, make a Statement about increases in social security benefits. My right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer yesterday announced the main features.
§ "The increases in benefit will take effect in the week beginning 15th November. The standard single rate of retirement pension and of invalidity pension, and the rate of widow's 1654 pension, will be increased by £2 from £13.30 to £15.30. For a married couple the increase will be £3.30 from £2120 to £24.50. There will be proportionate increases for younger widows, and for pensioners with pensions at modified rates, and an extra 95p for each dependent child of widows and other pensioners. As my right honourable friend indicated yesterday, now that the rate of inflation is coming down it would no longer be appropriate to base the uprating on a reference period which lies wholly in the past. However we are confident that the proposed increases of 15 per cent. will however be considerably larger than the actual or likely movement of earnings and prices from the time of the last uprating to November. Since the Labour Government came into office in February 1974 the real value of the single pension has risen by 16½ per cent. and that for a married couple by over 15 per cent. The 1976 uprating will do more than maintain that advance; it will raise the real value of pensions to a new peak. It will also maintain the married pension rate at broadly one-half, and the single pension rate at broadly one-third, of net average earnings.
§ "Similarly short-term benefits for sickness and unemployment will be increased to take account of the actual and likely movement in prices from last November to this November, again with a comfortable margin to spare, but on this occasion we have decided in addition to make a proportionately bigger improvement in the short-term rates compared with the long-term ones, thus narrowing the gap between them. The weekly benefit for a single person will go up by £1.80 to £12.90 and for a married couple by £2.90 to £20.90, increases of over 16 per cent. Maternity allowance and injury benefit will go up by the same amounts. Injury benefit will become £15.65 for the single person and £23.65 for the man with a dependent wife. Increases payable for dependent children of people drawing short-term benefits will also be raised.
§ "War and industrial injuries disablement and widows' pensions will go up in line with long-term benefits. For example, the pension for 100 per cent. disablement will for the former Army private and the person injured at work go up by £3.20 to £25. There will be comparable increases in the additional allowances which can be paid with these pensions. The therapeutic earnings limit will go up from £7 to £9.
§ "The rate of mobility allowance, which was only recently introduced at a higher rate than originally announced, has also been reviewed but, as it will have been running for less than a year, we do not propose to increase it on this occasion.
§ "As regards supplementary benefit the increase in the main scale rates will be the same as those in the related National Insurance benefits, and they will come into force at the same time. To coincide with the uprating the Supplementary Benefits Commission will he making increases in the discretionary additions for extra heating. These will be over and above the increases in the scale rates and will operate from the same dates. The detailed increases are from 55p 1655 to 70p, from £1.10 to £1.40 and from £1.65 to £2.10; that is, an increase of more than 25 per cent. in each rate, as compared with the 15 per cent. or 16 per cent. by which benefits generally will rise. The discretionary additions for special dietary needs will also be increased from 60p to 75p and from £1.35 to £1.75.
§ "My right honourable friend, the Secretary of State for the Environment, has it in mind to make appropriate adjustments in the needs allowances for the rent and rate rebate and rent allowance schemes. He will shortly be consulting his Advisory Committee on Rent Rebates and Rent Allowances about this.
§ "For the convenience of the House full details of the new rates of benefit are available in the Vote Office, and will be circulated in the Official Report. Shortly after the Easter Recess I shall be laying a draft Uprating Order, under Section 124 of the Social Security Act, for Affirmative Resolution. The order will be accompanied by a Government Actuary's Report.
| DETAILS OF NEW RATES OF BENEFIT | ||
| The following are the new rates: | ||
| MAIN INCREASED CONTRIBUTORY AND NON-CONTRIBUTORY BENEFIT RATES | ||
| Existing Weekly Rate £ | Proposed Weekly Rate £ | |
| Standard rate of invalidity, widow's and Category A retirement* pensions; Category B retirement pension at the higher rate* and widowed mother's allowance | 13.30 | 15.30 |
| Increase of invalidity pension and Category A retirement pension for wife or other adult dependant; Category B retirement pension at the lower rate* | 7.90 | 9.20 |
| Standard rate of unemployment and sickness benefits: | ||
| Higher rate | 11.10 | 12.90 |
| Increase for wife or other adult dependant | 6.90 | 8.00 |
| Lower rate | 7.80 | 9.20 |
| Widow's allowance (first 26 weeks of widowhood) | 18.60 | 21.40 |
| Maternity allowance | 11.10 | 12.90 |
| Invalidity allowance payable with invalidity pension, when in capacity began before age: | ||
| 35 | 2.80 | 3.20 |
| 45 | 1.70 | 2.00 |
| 60 for men or 55 for women | 0.85 | 1.00 |
| Attendance allowance: | ||
| Higher rate | 10.60 | 12.20 |
| Lower rate | 7.10 | 8.15 |
| Retirement pension for persons over pensionable age on 5th July 1948 and for persons over 80†: | ||
| Higher rate | 7.90 | 9.20 |
| Lower rate | 4.90 | 5.60 |
| Non-contributory invalidity pension | 7.90 | 9.20 |
| Invalid care allowance | 7.90 | 9.20 |
| Increase of non-contributory invalidity pension and invalid care allowance for wife or other adult dependant | 4.90 | 5.60 |
| Guardian's allowance | 6.50 | 7.45 |
| Child's special allowance; increases for children of widows, invalidity, non-contributory invalidity and retirement pensioners, and invalid care allowance beneficiaries: | ||
| First child | 6.50 | 7.45 |
| Any other child | 5.00 | 5.95 |
§ "My right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer also gave details of the improvements to be made to the Family Income Supplement scheme. The new income limits and the higher maxima will take effect on 20th July. Details are included in the papers in the Vote Office and draft regulations for Affirmative Resolution will be laid after the Easter Recess.
§ "As my right honourable friend announced yesterday, the full year cost of the increases in the full year cost of the increases in long-term benefits is about £1,070 million. The short-term increases I have announced will cost some £290 million. All in all, the full year cost of the whole of this uprating programme, including the increase in family income supplement and in the supplementary benefit heating and dietary additions, is about £1,390 million, of which just over £1,150 million will fall on the National Insurance Fund. The Contribution rates which have just come into force will be sufficient this year to finance the rates of benefits which I have just announced.
§ Following is the information:
1657| Existing Weekly Rate £ | Proposed Weekly Rate £ | |
| Increases for children of all other beneficiaries: | ||
| First child | 3.50 | 4.05 |
| Any other child | 2.00 | 2.55 |
| * An age addition of 25p is payable to retirement pensioners who are aged 80 or over. | ||
| †Excluding the 25p age addition. | ||
| ‡Family allowances bring the total payments up to the amount payable for the first child. |
| MAIN INCREASED INDUSTRIAL INJURIES BENEFIT RATES | ||
| Existing Weekly Rate£ | Proposed Weekly Rate£ | |
| Injury Benefit*† | 13.85 | 15.65 |
| Disablement benefit (100 per cent. assessment)* | 21.80 | 25.00 |
| Unemployability supplement‡ | 13.30 | 15.30 |
| Special hardship allowance (maximum) | 8.72 | 10.00 |
| Constant attendance allowance (normal maximum) | 8.70 | 10.00 |
| Exceptionally severe disablement allowance | 8.70 | 10.00 |
| Industrial death benefit: | ||
| Widow's pension during first 26 weeks of widowhood | 18.60 | 21.40 |
| Widow's pension now payable at £13.85 rate | 13.85 | 15.85 |
| Widow's pension now payable at £3.99 rate | 3.99 | 4.59 |
| * The Rates for beneficiaries not over the age of 18 will also be increased. | ||
| † Increases for adult dependants and children will be the same as those payable with unemployment and sickness benefits. | ||
| ‡ Invalidity allowances and increases for adult dependants and children will be the same as those payable with invalidity pensions. |
| MAIN INCREASED WAR PENSION RATES | ||
| All ranks receive the same increases, officers' rates being expressed in pounds per annum. | ||
| Part I: Disablement Benefits | ||
| Existing Weekly Rate£ | Proposed Weekly Rate£ | |
| Disablement pension for private at 100 per cent. rate | 21.80 | 25.00 |
| Unemployability allowances*: | ||
| Personal allowance | 14.20 | 16.30 |
| Increase for wife or other adult dependant | 7.90 | 9.20 |
| Comforts allowance: | ||
| Higher rate | 3.70 | 4.30 |
| Lower rate | 1.85 | 2.15 |
| Allowance for lower standard of occupation (maximum) | 8.72 | 10.00 |
| Constant attendance allowance: | ||
| Special maximum | 17.40 | 20.00 |
| Special intermediate | 13.05 | 15.00 |
| Normal maximum | 8.70 | 10.00 |
| Half and quarter day | 4.35 | 5.00 |
| Age allowance with assessments of: | ||
| 40 and 50 per cent. | 1.60 | 1.80 |
| 60 and 70 per cent. | 2.40 | 2.75 |
| 80 and 90 per cent. | 3.40 | 3.90 |
| 100 per cent. | 4.80 | 5.50 |
| Exceptionally severe disablement allowance | 8.70 | 10.00 |
| Severe disablement occupational allowance | 4.40 | 5.00 |
| Clothing allowance: | ||
| Higher rate | 30.00 | 36.00 |
| Lower rate | 21.00 | 23.00 |
| * Invalidity allowances and increases for children will be the same as those payable with invalidity pensions. |
| Part II: Death Benefits | ||
| Existing Annual Rate£ | ProposedAnnualRate£ | |
| Widow's pension—private's widow: | ||
| Standard rate | 17.20 | 19.80 |
| Childless widow under 40 | 3.99 | 4.59 |
| Rent allowance | 6.70 | 7.50 |
| Age allowance for elderly widows: | ||
| Between age 65 and 70 | 1.70 | 1.95 |
| Over age 70 | 3.40 | 3.90 |
| Widower's pension | 17.20 | 19.80 |
| Widow's children: | ||
| Eldest child | 6.70 | 7.65 |
| Other children with family allowances | 5.70 | 6.65 |
| Other children without family allowances | 6.55 | 7.50 |
| Motherless and fatherless children aged: | ||
| Under Eldest 15 child or other children with no family allowances | 6.70 | 7.65 |
| Over 15 Eldest child or other children with no family allowances | 8.20 | 9.15 |
| Under 15 Other children with family allowances | 5.70 | 6.65 |
| Over 15 Other children with family allowances | 7.20 | 8.15 |
| Adult orphans | 13.30 | 15.30 |
| FAMILY INCOME SUPPLIMENT | ||
| Existing Amounts £ | Proposed Amounts* £ | |
| Prescribed amount for a family which includes one child | 31.50 | 39.00 |
| Increase in the prescribed amount for children after the first | 3.50 | 4.50 |
| Maximum supplement payable for a one child family | 7.00 | 8.50 |
| Increase in maximum for each additional child | 0.50 | 0.50 |
| * From 20th July. |