§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the current salary of (a) a staff nurse, (b) a State enrolled nurse and (c) an auxiliary nurse; and how this compares with each of the last three years.
§ Mr. Geoffrey Finsberg:The information requested is shown in the table below. It should be noted that the figures quoted relate to basic salary scales and do not include such allowances as payment for work done during unsocial hours.
Wallasey (Mrs. Chalker), dated 8 April 1981 about the Prime Minister's pledge on shortfall of social security benefits; and what percentage of the social security budget is made up by the various benefits itemised in the letter before and after the uprating due on 23 November.
373W
§ Mrs. Chalker:The text of my letter of 8 April 1981 is set out below. The benefits to which it refers account for 63 per cent. of expenditure on social security benefits in 1981–82 and this percentage is not changed by the uprating on 23 November.
In the Standing Committee on 26 March I undertook to write to you about the social security benefits covered by the Prime Minister's pledge on shortfall (Standing Committee G, c. 291).This Government is committed to compensate pensioners fully for price increases over the lifetime of this Parliament. This was the pledge repeated by the Prime Minister of 25 February (Vol. 999, c. 371). Pensioners include, in addition to those receiving national insurance retirement pensions, recipients of the following benefits: Widow's pension (including widowed mothers allowance and widow's allowance); industrial death benefit paid by way of a widow's or widower's pension; war disablement pension and industrial injury disablement pension; war widow's pension; attendance allowance, invalid care allowance and non-contributory invalidity pension. Supplementary pension, now aligned with retirement pension, will be similarly protected.Invalidity benefit and unemployability supplement have of course had their uprating abated in 1980 but part of the abatement is to be made good at the 1981 uprating (IVA and its equivalent) and we have given an assurance that the benefits will be restored to the rate of retirement pension when they are brought into tax. The abated rates, transitionally, and the unabated rates thereafter, will be price protected.I am copying this letter to the other members who were on Standing Committee G.