§ Mr. Campbell-Savoursasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what the cost to the Exchequer would be of ending the overlapping benefits rule for working widows paying class 1 contributions under the age of 60 years.
§ Mrs. ChalkerOn the assumption that all those who worked also paid full contributions, the estimated cost to the national insurance fund of paying contributory sickness benefit, invalidity benefit and unemployment benefit to widow beneficiaries under the age of 60 would be about £30 million a year. It would, however, be difficult to confine the abolition of the overlapping benefits rule to those widows under 60 and, as I said in my reply to the hon. Member for Whitehaven (Dr. Cunningham) on 25 February—[Vol. 999, c.400–1]—the eventual cost of abolishing the overlapping benefits rule for all widows, including those over pensionable age, would probably be of the order of £3 billion.