HC Deb 25 March 1957 vol 567 cc80-1W
73. Mr. T. Brown

asked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance how many persons he estimates will be entitled to non-contributory pensions in 1960, 1965, 1970, and 1980, in each year; and how many approximately will be men, single women, widows, and married women, respectively.

Miss Pitt

There are no means of estimating with any precision the number of persons in future years who will not be entitled to a National Insurance retirement pension but will be able to satisfy the statutory conditions for a non-contributory old-age pension. On a very tentative estimate, the number of noncontributory pensions, which had fallen to about 257,000 by the end of 1956, may fall to about 175,000 in 1960, about 80,000 in 1965, about 40,000 in 1970 and only a few in 1980. Any further detail would be sheer speculation