§ Sir B. Rhys Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what would be the gross cost of now paying benefits to beneficiaries of the State earnings-related pension scheme will full compensation for changes in the value of money since the relevant contributions were made; and how many people would benefit; and what would be the net cost after allowing for the effect of income tax deductions and the reduction of claims for supplementary benefit.
§ Mr. Robert C. Brown,pursuant to his reply [OFFICIAL REPORT, 24th May 1974; Vol. 834, c. 337], gave the following information:
The cost now would be about £25 million a year for about 2¾ million beneficiaries rising, in terms of present day earnings, to well over £100 million a year for about 8 million beneficiaries by the end of the century. Precise estimates cannot be made of the reduction in supplementary benefit payments or of the additional income tax that would be paid but it is unlikely that the former would now exceed £5 million or that the latter would exceed £3 million.
§ Sir B. Rhys Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what would be the increase in pension income for a man retiring this year after regularly earning the national average wage if he had been contracted into the State earnings-related pension scheme from the start and compensation were now allowed in full for changes in the value of money since the relevant contributions were made.
§ Mr. Robert C. Brown,pursuant to his reply [OFFICIAL REPORT, 24th May 1974; Vol. 834, c. 337], gave the following information:
Assuming that
he would receive 58p per week more in pension than if his contributions had not been so revalued.
- (a) the man's average weekly earnings throughout each income tax year
514 from April 1961, the date of introduction of the graduated pension scheme, were the same as those of adult male manual workers in manufacturing and certain other industries, as determined by the Department of Employment's inquiry in the October of those years; and - (b) he reached age 65 and retired on 5th April 1974; and
- (c) his total graduated contributions for each of those tax years were revalued at the date in (b) to take account of changes in the General Index of Retail Prices;