§ Mr. MANDERasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he is now in a position to furnish the following particulars as to old age pensions for the year ended 31st March, 1929, namely: the total amount of pensions paid; the cost of administration; the total number of pensions in force, men and women, respectively; the numbers at 10s., 9s., 8s., 7s., 6s., 5s., 4s., 3s., 2s., and 1s.; the number of applications for pension; the number of applications rejected, giving various sources of rejection, i.e., age, poor relief, means, and other causes, respectively; the number of pensioners of whose death notice has reached pension officers; the number of paupers over 70 years of age in England, Scotland, and Wales in institutions, with the average cost per annum, and the number of persons over 70 years of age in receipt of outdoor relief, with the average cost per head per annum, men and women separately in both cases; the number of old age pensioners in receipt of out-door relief and institutional relief, respectively; the total amount so expended; the number of old age pensions paid to persons over 70 years of age under the Widows', Orphans', and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act, 1925, i.e., without means test, men and women, respectively; the cost per head per week of a convict in penal servitude and the prisoner in local prisons; how many persons over 70 years of age are in prison and penal servitude; and the number of old age pensioners who have been proceeded against for the violation of any of the provisions of the Old Age Pensions Acts, 1908 to 1924?
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§ Mr. PETHICK-LAWRENCEThe particulars desired by the hon. Member, so far as they are available, are as follow
Old Age Pensions.—(The figures are for Great Britain and for the Tear ended 31st March, 1929.)
- (1) Total amount paid in Old Age Pensions, including pensions under and by virtue of the 1925 Act, was approximately £47,829,000.
- (2) Total cost of Administration;
- (a) Expenses of Pension Committees—£42,000.
- (b) Expenses of administration by the Government Departments concerned, estimated at £820,000.
£ £ Under the 1908–24 cts Men 300,061 Women 650,734 950,795 Over 70 Pensions by virtue of the 1925 Act Men 238,976 Women 127,452 366,428 65–70 Pensions under the 1925 Act Men 358,120 Women 180,806 538,929 Total £1,856,149 (4) The number of pensions payable at the various rates on the last Friday in March, 1929, was as follows:
These figures do not include the 366,428 pensions by virtue of the 1925 Act, nor the 538,926 pensions under the 1925 Act, all of which are at the 10s. rate.
926,287 at the 10s. rate. 7,690 at the 8s. rate. 6,559 at the 6s. rate. 4 at the 5s. rate. 5,922 at the 4s. rate. 3,318 at the 2s. rate. 1,015 at the 1s. rate. (5) The number of applications for pensions was:
Non-contributory … 117,113 Over 70 contributory* … 30,046 65–70 Pensions … 204,368 *Note.—The bulk of the over 70 pensions by virtue of the Act of 1925 are now payable without application to widows who on attaining the age of 70 were in receipt of widows' pensions and to persons who on attaining the age of 70 were in receipt of 65–70 pensions. (6) Number of Applications rejected.
1616W(a) Non-contributory and over-70 contributory.—The only figures available are the combined figures of claims rejected and pensions revoked which are as follows:Note.—This figure does not include the cost of administration by the Ministry of Health, the Department of Health for Scotland, and the Welsh Board of Health, of pensions granted by virtue of the 1925 Act, which is chargeable to the Pensions Account. The 1925 Act provides also for widows' and orphans' pensions and the cost of administration cannot be allocated to the various groups of pensions separately.
Final figures are not yet available for any of the above.
(3) The total number of pensions actually payable in England, Scotland and Wales on the last payment date in March, 1929, was as follows:
Age … … 5,969 Poor Relief … … 12,783 Means … … 12,906 Other Causes … … 2,412 Total … … 34,070 (b) Claims for 65–70 pensions rejected—25,759.
The main grounds for rejection were insurance, age of claimant, or, where the wife was claiming in respect of her husband's insurance, the husband was found not to be qualified.
(7) Number of pensioners of whose death notice was received.
Non-Contributory Pensioners 117,587 Over-70 Contributory Pensioners 20,846 65–70 Pensioners 24,829 (8) Number of pensioners who have been proceeded against for infringement of the provisions of the Old Age Pensions Acts, 1908–24–4.
(9) Paupers in Institutions and in receipt of Outdoor Relief.
1617W(a) England and Wales.Number of persons (other than lunatics in county and borough asylums) in receipt of Poor Law relief in England and Wales on 1st January, 1929.
— Institutional Relief. Domiciliary Relief. Totals. (i) Total number of persons (all ages) 236,501 899,663 1,136,164 (ii) Number of persons over 65 years of age (included in (i) above). 68,718 135,060 203,778 (iii) Number of persons over 70 years of age (included in (ii) above). 46,837 75,119 121,956 (iv) Number of old age pensioners over G5 years of age (included in (ii) above). 4,846 88,263 93,109
Average weekly cost of Poor Law relief in England and Wales in the financial year 1927–28:— (i) Average cost of institutional relief (other than relief to lunatics in county and borough asylums) per person in receipt of such relief … 27s. 8¼d. (ii) Average cost of domiciliary relief per person in receipt of such relief … 6s. 9¼d. These averages cover the same items and are subject to the same qualifications as those previously furnished for the year 1918–19 and earlier years and set out on page 148 of Part III of the First Annual Report of the Minister of Health (Command Paper 932) except that, in view of the wide fluctuations of pauperism, the figures have been calculated on the average weekly numbers in receipt of relief instead of on a mean of the numbers on two dates (1st July and 1st January). It is not practicable to state the average cost per head for men and women separately, nor the total ex-
— Males. Females. Dependants. Total. Sane Poor: In Poorhouse:— Ordinary 7,557 4,193 690 12,440 Destitute able-bodied Unemployed 553 49 160 762 Outdoor:— Ordinary 19,738 31,148 49,708 100,594 Destitute able-bodied Unemployed 26,834 1,951 62,639 91,424 Other than Sane Poor: In licensed Wards of Poorhouses Greenock Parochial Asylum and in Certified Institutions for Mental Defectives 684 680 — 1,364 In Asylums 7,462 7,286 — 14,748 In Private dwellings and Mental Defectives boarded with Governors of Poorhouses 1,190 1,409 — 2,599 The average weekly cost of all sane paupers and dependants for 1927–28 on the basis of the number chargeable other than destitute able-bodied unemployed, at 15th May, 1928, was:
£ s. d. Indoor … … … … 1 0 5 Outdoor … … … … 6 5 These average costs are exclusive of general administrative charges. Indoor
1618Wpenditure on Poor Law relief granted to old age pensioners.
(b) Scotland.
No figures are available as to the number of persons admitted to poorhouses who were in receipt of Old Age Pensions whilst inmates thereof, nor of those who were in receipt of Old Age Pensions up to the date of admission.
The number of paupers and dependants of all classes in Scotland at 15th May, 1928, was:
cost includes cost of maintenance, management, debt charges, etc. of poorhouses. Outdoor cost includes aliment, additional aliment (e.g., clothing, boots, fuel, etc), removals, interments and medical charges.
The number of sane paupers and dependants in Scotland over 70 at 15th September, 1928, and 15th January, 1929, was:
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— Males. Females. Dependants Total. 15th September, 1928:— In Poorhouses … … … … … 1,236 1,056 8 2,300 Outdoor … … … … … 3,742 5,395 841 9,978 15th January, 1929:— In Poorhouses … … … … … 1,312 1,108 4 2,424 Outdoor … … … … … 3,841 5,443 867 10,151 These outdoor poor include Old Age Pensioners as follows:—
— Males. Females. Dependants. Total. At 15tb September, 1928 … … … … 3,018 4,405 713 8,136 At 15th January, 1929:— 3,127 4,506 735 8,368 There were also lunatic poor of 70 years of age and upwards who cannot be allocated between Indoor and Outdoor.
— Males. Females. Total At 15th September, 1928 … … … … 522 829 1,351 At 15th January, 1929 … … … … 546 829 1,375 (10) Cost of Maintenance of Convicts and Local Prisoners.
(a) England and Wales.
The latest available figures are for the year ended 31st March, 1928, and are as follow:
Gross cost per week per head. Net cost, after deducting value of labour and incidental receipts per week per head. £ s. d. £ s. d. Convict Prisoners … 2 0 5 1 7 11 Local Prisoners … 1 11 2 1 0 8 The above figures do not include the cost of—
- (a) New Buildings and
- (b) Charges borne by other Votes, e.g., Fuel, Rates, etc.
The cost of (b) is approximately 12s. 4d. per head per week, in respect of all classes of prisoners.
(b) Scotland.
The figures for Scotland for the year ended 31st December, 1928, are as follow:
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- Convicts, £2 6s. 4d. per head per week.
- Local Prisoners, £1 6s. 3d. per head per week.
- (11) Persons over 70 years of age in prison.
(a) England and Wales.
The latest statistics relate to the year ended 31st December, 1927. During this period the total number of convicted prisoners received into prison (including those sentenced to penal servitude) who were 70 years of age or over was 279 men and 73 women. There is no information available showing how many of these were sentenced to penal servitude.(b) Scotland.
During the year ended. 31st March, 1929, 68 persons (50 males and 18 females) over 70 years of age were confined in Scottish prisons, of whom 44 males and 16 females were convicted and six males and two females were untried. There were no persons in penal servitude over 70 years of age in confinement during the year referred to.