§ 82. Mrs. Thatcherasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance (1) what level of minimum income guarantee she is proposing for a single person and married couple, respectively;
(2) what she estimates would be the annual cost of a minimum income guarantee scheme if the weekly sum guaranteed to widows and retired persons were to be £5 for a single person and £7 10s. for a married couple;
(3) how many widows and persons of retirement age were in receipt of National Assistance at the latest available date; and how many she estimates would be removed from assistance if weekly incomes were guaranteed to a minimum of £5 and £7 10s. for a single person and married couple, respectively;
(4) whether her proposed minimum income guarantee scheme will take into account variations in rent payable by recipients;
(5) what account she proposes to take of capital in her scheme for a guaranteed minimum income; and whether people will have to reveal their capital position on the proposed Inland Revenue form;
(6) what forms of income she proposes to disregard in calculating the amount payable under her Minimum Guaranteed Income Scheme;
(7) what estimate she has made of the level to which incomes could be guaranteed without penalising thrift.
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§ Miss HerbisonI must ask the hon. Lady to await the details of our income guarantee proposals when they can be brought forward as a complete scheme. Meanwhile it is not possible to give the estimates of cost or of the effect on thrift, for which the hon. Lady asks. These must to a large extent depend on the precise form of the scheme, as well as on the facts about the financial and other circumstances of retirement pensioners on which we are shortly to conduct a survey. The number of widows and persons of retirement age in receipt of national assistance at the end of 1964 was 1,454,000.