§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many and what proportion of widows aged under 60 years in receipt of (1) widow's pension,(a) full and (b) reduced, and (2) widowed mother's allowance also claim (i) income support, (ii) family credit and (iii) housing benefit.
Table 1 Single pensioners Averages of income components by quintile (per week, 1988 prices) Total benefits Occupational pensions Investment income Earnings Total gross Total net 1st Quintile 43.60 1.10 2.90 0.10 47.80 46.40 2nd Quintile 51.00 2.90 3.40 0.40 57.70 56.80 3rd Quintile 57.80 5.80 3.30 0.50 67.50 66.40 4th Quintile 55.00 18.10 11.10 2.30 86.60 81.30 5th Quintile 49.90 64.00 56.00 16.90 186.70 155.30 Overall 51.80 16.50 13.70 3.50 85.50 78.50
Table 2 Single pensioners Proportion of average gross income derived from each component, by quintile (per cent.) Total benefits Occupational pensions Investment income Earnings Total gross 1st Quintile 91 2 6 * 100 2nd Quintile 88 5 6 1 100 3rd Quintile 86 9 5 1 100 4th Quintile 63 21 13 3 100 5th Quintile 27 34 30 9 100 Overall 61 19 16 4 100
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Table 3 Pensioner couples Averages of income components by quintile (per week, 1988 prices, Total benefits Occupational pensions Investment income Earnings Total gross Total net 1st quintile 71.30 3.70 5.00 1.10 81.00 78.80 2nd quintile 80.30 10.20 6.20 1.30 98.00 96.30 3rd quintile 81.30 22.80 9.70 2.90 116.80 111.90 4th quintile 77.60 42.80 19.80 13.30 153.40 141.70 5th quintile 69.50 12.400 89.80 64.90 348.20 286.60 Overall 75.20 45.80 30.20 19.90 171.20 151.90
§ Miss WiddecombeIt is not possible to answer all the question. The most recent available data on widows' benefits are for March 1990 and for income support and housing benefit, May 1990. These two data sources have been combined to provide estimates of the proportion of those on widows' benefits on other benefits. Statistically valid figures of the number of widows receiving both widows' benefits and family credit are not available. A total of 18,000 or 6 per cent. of those in receipt of widow's pension and 6,000 or 9 per cent. of those in receipt of widowed mother's allowance were also in receipt of income support. A further 24,000, or 7 per cent., of those in receipt of either widow's pension or widowed mother's allowance also received housing benefit.
§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will give the composition of income for single pensioners and pensioner couples by quintile of income, using the 1988 family expenditure survey, broken down by average gross weekly income, and the proportion derived from social security benefits, occupational pensions, savings and investment and earnings.
§ 7. Miss WiddecombeThe information is in the tables.
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Table 4 Pensioner couples Proportion of average gross income derived from each component, by quintile (per cent.) Total benefits Occupational pensions Investment income Earnings Total gross 1st quintile 88 5 6 1 100 2nd quintile 82 10 6 1 100 3rd quintile 70 20 8 3 100 4th quintile 51 28 13 9 100 5th quintile 20 36 26 19 100 Overall 44 27 18 12 100 Notes:
1. Source: 1988 Family Expenditure Survey.
2. Quintiles used are of net equivalised income gross of housing costs.
3. Quintile groups used are for all pensioners, rather than for singles and couples separately.
4. Pensioners are defined as single people over state pension age, or couples in which the man is over pension age.
5. Figures may not sum to totals due to rounding.
6. All averages in Tables 1 and 3 are means.
'*' denotes a figure of less than 0.5 per cent.
§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what steps he is taking to notify those pensioners who qualify for income support as a result of his uprating statement that they now have rights to this additional entitlement, and the consequent passported benefits;
(2) what steps he is taking to inform and assist local authorities to ensure that all those individuals entitled to additional benefits, including housing benefit, community charge benefit and other passported benefits, arising from pensioners becoming entitled to income support, are notified of their rights by local authorities.
§ Miss WiddecombeThe Department has written to the local authority associations to tell them that we shall issue a circular asking local authorities to bring to the attention of pensioners receiving the maximum rate of community charge benefit that they might become entitled to income support when benefits are uprated next April.
We are considering what further steps, through the Benefits Agency or otherwise, can be taken to bring the possibility of new or renewed entitlement to income support for pensioners arising from the uprating.
§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many pensioners received income support and/or housing benefit to top up retirement pension reduced following a stay in hospital of more than six weeks in 1990–91; and what was the cost.
§ Miss WiddecombeThe annual statistical inquiry for 1990 did not reveal any such cases. The inquiry is based on a 1 per cent. sample of all cases.
Number of claimants, partners and dependants 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 Claimants 2,854,664 3,117,774 3,722,563 4,266,531 4,349,192 4,609,310 — 4,937,736 4,895,525 4,351,520 4,160,765 4,179,906 Partners 560,871 620,752 848,726 1,010,205 1,020,610 1,086,318 — 1,126,654 1,073,579 841,018 723,770 691,157 Dependants 954,705 1,124,718 1,550,168 1,792,958 1,867,840 2,032,992 — 2,226,548 2,235,824 2,195,454 2,138,404 2,151,159 Total 4,370,240 4,863,244 6,121,457 7,069,694 7,237,642 7,728,620 — 8,290,938 8,204,928 7,387,992 7,022,939 7,022,222 Source: Annual Statistical Enquiries