Pensioners (Hansard, 30 November 2000)

§ Mr. Field
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) if he will estimate, using the assumptions used to calculate the number of pensioners eligible for the pension credit, how many pensioner couples in 2003 will have a pre-credit weekly income(a) below £123, (b) £123 to £153, (c) £154 to £200 and (d) over £200; [140952]
855W
(2) if he will estimate, using the assumptions used to calculate the number of pensioners eligible for the pension credit, how many single pensioners in 2003 will have a pre-credit weekly income (a) below £77, (b) £77 to £100, (c) £100 to £134 and (d) over £134. [140951]

§ Mr. Rooker
I refer my right hon. Friend to the written answer I gave him on 28 November 2000,Official Report, columns 487–88W.

§ Mr. Alexander
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what steps he has taken to increase the disposable income of pensioners since 1997. [141268]

§ Mr. Rooker
Since 1997 we have introduced the Winter Fuel Payment, the Minimum Income Guarantee and, from April 2001, transitional arrangements for Retirement Pension. Changes to tax and benefits during this Parliament will mean that pensioner households will on average be £580 a year better off.
Our additional discretionary spending on pensioners will reach over £4 billion extra in the last year of this Parliament.

§ Mr. Boswell
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many occupational pensioners in receipt of incapacity benefit will(a) receive that benefit in full, (b) suffer a partial benefit abatement and (c) suffer a full abatement, on account of their pension. [139624]

§ Mr. Bayley
[holding answer 23 November 2000]: Incapacity Benefit recipients who have an occupational or personal pension at the point of change (6 April 2001) will not be affected.
Existing recipients and anyone with a pension of less than £85 will not be affected.
The information on Incapacity Benefit (IB) for the next three years is as follows.

Thousands 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04

Partial abatement 20 40 65

Full abatement ^* 5 5

Receiving IB in full 1,630 1,635 1,635

Notes:
1. Case loads have been rounded to the nearest 5,000 and may not sum due to rounding (^⋆ denotes a case load of less than 2,500).
2. Abatements have been calculated from data taken from the 1996–97 Family Resources Survey. Case loads are consistent with September 1999 GAD forecasts of IB case loads.

Thousands	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04
Partial abatement	20	40	65
Full abatement	^*	5	5
Receiving IB in full	1,630	1,635	1,635