§ 19. Mr. Manuelasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance what estimate he has made of the extra expenditure to be incurred in 1962–63 by the National Assistance Board as a result of the increased cost of welfare foods.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterThe National Assistance Board does not, of course, make payments in respect of welfare foods; it issues, in appropriate cases, tokens enabling the recipient to get a free supply. There is therefore no cost to the Board apart from the administrative costs of operating these arrangements, which as I told the hon. Member78W on 19th February last were estimated at £74,000 a year. These costs are expected in 1962–63 to be at the same level.
§ 20. Mr. Manuelasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance, to what extent his estimate for the expenditure of the National Assistance Board for 1962–63 has taken account of projected increases in rents and rates.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterFully.
§ 39. Mr. Reynoldsasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance what was the average weekly supplement paid by the National Assistance Board to single retirement pensioners over the latest convenient period; and how long it would take a contributor, male and female, respectively, with £15 a week to aggregate that sum under the graduated pensions scheme.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterThe answer to the first part of the Question is 18s. 11d. at the end of 1961. For rates of pension under the graduated scheme I would refer the hon. Member to the White Paper (Cmnd. 538) which I presented to Parliament in October. 1958.
§ 40. Mr. Reynoldsasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance what would need to be added to the present National Assistance scale rate in respect of a husband and wife to regain the value that the sum had on the date of the announcement of the last increase.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterOn the basis of the Retail Prices Index. 4s. 7d
§ 47. Mr. Oswaldasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance how many pensioners in Edinburgh at the latest available date were in receipt of a weekly supplement from the National Assistance Board; and how this figure compares with pensioners in receipt of supplement in the week after the last increase in pensions.
§ Mrs. ThatcherIn the area covered by the National Assistance Board's offices which serve the City of Edinburgh, and also some places outside it, the number of National Assistance 79W supplements to retirement pension at the end of March, 1962, was 8,160. A figure is not available for the week after the increase in pension rates in April, 1961, but at the end of June. 1961, it was 7,993.