§ Mrs. Chalkerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what would be the net cost of increasing the retirement pension by £3.35 for a couple and £3.40 for a single person over and above the increases due in April 1975 ; and what would be the effect of such an increase on the number of retirement pensioners claiming supplementary pension.
§ Mr. Alec JonesThe cost, after allowing for savings on supplementary benefit, would be about £850 million a year. About one million retirement pensioners would cease to receive supplementary pension, about 200,000 of whom have wives who are also retirement pensioners.