§ 63. Mr. McKayasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance what was the average cost-of-living index figure for the three months prior to 1st December, 1954, when the Minister announced the increase of pensions; what he estimates to be the percentage increase in the cost of living when using the same cost-of-living index and taking the average of the three months July, August and September, this year; how much he estimates that a similar percentage rise 10W in pensions would give to the single and married pensioners; how much the increased pension would be in percentage above that of 1946 level; and how much this rise would be below the general rise of earnings for the same period.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterThe average level of the Retail Prices Index for the three months prior to 1st December, 1954, was 144. The average for July, August, and September of this year showed a rise of nearly 9 per cent. above this level. An increase of this order in the rate of pension payable in December, 1954, would have given a single pensioner an extra 2s. l1d. and the married couple an extra 4s. l1d., bringing their pensions to about 39 per cent. above the 1946 level. In fact, since then the single pensioner has had an extra 7s. 6d. and the married couple an extra l1s. and pensions are about 55 per cent. above what they were in 1946. The rise in the index of rates of wages since 1946 is about 67 per cent.; in the average earnings of manual wage earners, which include overtime and bonus payments, it is about 96 per cent.