§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, for a married man retiring now who was in receipt of national average earnings, what is the current level of his retirement pension in
Date of retirement (at age 65) Standard rate of retirement pension for married couple Graduated pension earned* Total pension Average net wage† Column (4) as percentage of Column (5) £ per week £ per week £ per week £ per week (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) October 1958 … … 4.00 — 4.00 11.13 35.9 October 1963 … … 5.45 0.10 5.55 14.04 39.5 October 1968 … … 7.30 0.45 7.75 17.88 43.3 October 1973 … … 12.50 1.17 13.67 29.61‡ 46.2 *Assuming that man earned the average wage for adult male manual workers. †The average for adult male manual workers after deducting tax and NI contributions. ‡The October 1973 figure is not yet available. This figure is an estimate based on the provisional August 1973 monthly index.