§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will publish a table showing standard rate State retirement pensions as a percentage of average manual earnings over each of the past five years in the United Kingdom, and in each of the nine EEC member States and Sweden.
§ Mr. Robert C. BrownI regret that the information for other countries is not available in the form requested. Details for the United Kingdom are as follows:
Date Retirement pension as a percentage of *average manual earnings †October 1969 … 20.1 October 1970 … 17.8 October 1971 … 19.4 October 1972 … 18.8 October 1973 … 18.9 †The comparison is with the pension rate introduced in November 1969. * Gross average earnings of adult, male, full-time, manual workers in manufacturing and certain other industries, as determined by the Department of Employment's regular October inquiry, compared with the standard flat rate retirement pension for a single person.
§ Mr. William Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she 67W will propose backdating the payment of the proposed retirement pension increases to the date when the initial announcement is made.
§ Mrs. CastleI am afraid that I cannot undertake to do as my hon. Friend suggests, but I would ask him to await next week's announcement of our full proposals for this year's pension increases.