§ Mr. Alan HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many(a) men and (b) women qualified for home responsibilities protection during each of the past five years, by reason for protection; and what is his estimate of the annual cost of making each year of home responsibilities protection equivalent to a year in which full national insurance credits have been awarded. [15797]
§ Mr. HealdThe information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the table.
The Government Actuary's Department has estimated that replacing the home responsibilities protection arrangements with full national insurance credits would cost £150 million in the year 2030.
Series is 1974 (23 November 1994, Official Report,columns 171–76).Information for intervening years has been published in the annual "Social Security Statistics" since 1993. Further details about pensioner households are given in the annual "Households Below Average Income" statistics.
Copies of all these publications are available in the Library.
Notes:
1A pensioner unit is defined as a single person over state pension age or a couple where the man, defined as the head, is over SPA. A recently retired pensioner unit is defined as a pensioner unit where the head of the benefit unit is less than five years older than SPA.2Source:The Pensioners' Income Series 1994–95.
1. Figures quoted are at July 1994 prices.