§ Mr. Kenneth Clarkeasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people in receipt of retirement pensions at present continue in work; how many have their pensions extinguished by the earnings rule; how many have their pensions reduced by the earnings rule and how many earn below the earnings rule; and what estimates have the Government made of the likely figures after the earnings rule level is raised in April 1976.
§ Mr. O'MalleyIn July 1975, 6,500 people had their pensions extinguished and 4,600 had them reduced because of the effect of the earnings rule. No current information is available of the number of pensioners who work but are paid amounts insufficient to bring them within the scope of the rule; nor can any estimate of the position after April 1976 be made about any of the three categories.
The most recent figures available for the total number of pensioners at work, including those who are past the age when the earnings rule applies, are for 1974, when some 200,000 male pensioners and 145,000 single, widowed and divorced women pensioners were working for employers to an extent sufficient for national insurance contributions to have had to be paid in respect of them. However, these figures do not include married women and the self-employed, about whom no information is available.