§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many old-age pensioners there are in the South-East Region; what percentage they represent of total population in the region; what is the value of supplementary allowances received by them during the past 12 months; what was the number of people drawing their entitlement.
§ Mr. Robert C. BrownThe population over pension age in the South-East Region was shown as 2,882,000 in the 1971 Census. Statistics are not maintained for the number of retirement pensioners in each region but over Great Britain as a whole 85.9 per cent. of people over pension age are entitled to retirement pension.
The number of retirement pensioners receiving supplementary benefit in the South-East Region was about 514,000 in January 1974 and it is estimated that the total annual cost was of the order of £90 million.