Pensions (Hansard, 24 March 2003)

§ Mr. Webb
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer of 28 January, ref 91305, on married women's pensions, (1)(a) what criteria were used to determine which women were invited to claim, (b) how many such women were invited to claim, and (c) how many responses he received; and if he will place in the Library (i) a copy of the promotional material relating to the publicity campaign and (ii) a copy of the letter sent to the women identified from the database trawl: [95041]
(2) what steps his Department took to alert women below state pension age of the implications of the abolition of the half-test for the advisability of their remaining on the married women's reduced national insurance rate. [95275]

§ Mr. McCartney
[holding answer 31 January 2003]The women invited to claim a Category A pension where they had previously failed the married women's half-test, were determined by using the following criteria, that:

(i) they were now entitled to a Category A pension of at least 25 per cent.;

(ii) no Category A pension had previously been awarded because of a failure to satisfy the half-test; and

(iii) results of previous claims had been fed back to Newcastle Records specifically as either "Claim disallowed" or "No title established" because of the half-test.

Information on how many women were invited to claim and how many responses were received is not available. However, it was estimw:ed that some 25,000 married women would benefit from the change.
A copy of leaflet NI256 issued as part of the publicity campaign has been placed in the Library. Other publicity material and actual copies of the letters sent to women are no longer readily available as over time they have become obsolete.
There is a distinct difference between the married women's' half-test and the married women's reduced national insurance rate contributions in that the half-test provided women with entitlement to a State Pension in their own right but the married women's reduced national insurance rate contributions do not.

§ Mr. O'Hara
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans the Government have to promote(a) take-up of the new Pension Credit and (b) take-up of the credit by the poorest and most isolated pensioners. [104594]
108W

§ Mr. McCartney
To support the take-on of pension credit a marketing campaign has been developed that seeks to address the specific needs of pensioners and those who support them such as family and friends.
The core of the campaign involves contacting all pensioner households by direct mail and inviting them to make their applications by telephone. In this way we can support and complete the application form for them. The Pension Service will start writing to pensioner households to invite applications in April 2003 and plan to complete this activity in June 2004. This systematic approach will be supported by regional and national advertising around the launch of Pension Credit and when it becomes payable.
By working with local partners, The Pension Service will he able to help vulnerable pensioners or those who need to overcome barriers that might prevent them from applying.
To ensure pensioners do not lose out, a 12 month backdating provision will exist until October 2004. This will allow applications to be backdated to October 2003 where entitlement exists.

§ Mr. David Stewart
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the potential impact of combined pension forecasting on encouraging people to save for their retirement. [104571]

§ Mr. McCartney
The purpose of the combined pension forecast is to provide people with good information about their current and future retirement incomes in order to help them make better informed decisions about their needs in retirement and raise awareness of the importance of making adequate provision.
The pilot phase of the combined pension forecast initiative provided us with an indication of the potential impact of the statement on recipients. Individual detailed results demonstrating the impact of the combined statement and their potential to encourage people to save more for their retirement are commercially sensitive. We do not have the permission of all the participating companies to release all the data. It would, therefore, be inappropriate to publish this information. However, in total some 98 per cent. of those who received a forecast found it useful and 31 per cent. sought further information about increasing their pension provision.

§ Mr. Hunter
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will adjust council tax benefit and housing benefit for pensioners to ensure that council tax and rent increases do not exceed any increase in the state retirement pension. [94052]

§ Malcolm Wicks
We want all pensioners to have a decent and secure income in retirement and to share fairly in the rising prosperity of the country. The Government's first priority has been to help the poorest pensioners and from April 2002, we are spending an extra £6 billion a year in real terms on pensioners as a result of policies introduced since 1997.
In general, people receiving council tax benefit or housing benefit have any increases in their rent or council tax paid in full.
109W
The only exceptions to this are for people living in expensive properties in council tax band 'F' or above (council tax benefit is restricted to the level of band `E'), and for people in the private rented sector who have their housing benefit capped because of the level of their rent. However, these affect only a very small proportion of pensioners.
Housing benefit and council tax benefit are targeted at those people with the lowest incomes who are in most need of financial support. We have no plans to extend the availability of these benefits more widely.