§ Sir H. Williamsasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury if he will give particulars in each of the last three complete years of the total outlay under the contributory and non-contributory pension Acts; the amounts spent in supplementary pensions; and the number of beneficiaries under the various schemes in respect of pensions or allowances under these Acts for each of those years.
§ Mr. AsshetonThe information required is contained in the attached table.
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Class of Pension. Estimated Expenditure† in the year ending the 31st March. Estimated number of beneficiaries at 31st March. 1941 £ million. 1942 £ million. 1943 £ million. 1941 Thousands 1942 Thousands 1943 Thousands Contributory Pensions* 89.8 95.3 98.5 3,725 3,865 4,008 Non-contributory old age pensions, including blind pensions. 13.5 13.1 12.5 517 495 478 Supplementary pensions 15.4 27.2 37.6 —4‡ —4‡ —4‡ * Widows pensions, allowances to widows in respect of children, orphans pensions and contributory old age pensions, including pensions payable both to persons under the age of 70 and also to persons over that age who are entitled thereto by virtue of the Contributory Pensions Acts. † The expenditure does not include the cost of administration. ‡ Statistics are not available as to the total number of beneficiaries. Supplementary pensions current at 31st March, 1941, 1942 and 1943, numbered 979,000, 1,129,000 and 1,207,000. The supplementary pensions current at the last of these dates covered the needs of approximately 1,400,000 pensioners included among the beneficiaries in the last column of the table and in addition those of approximaetly 67,000 persons who were not pensioners and are not included in the table.