§ Mr. Georgeasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will list in the OFFICIAL REPORT the value of old-age pensions as a percentage of net average earnings for each year since 1948.
§ Mr. O'MalleyFollowing is the information:
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RETIREMENT PENSION AS A PERCENTAGE OF NET AVERAGE EARNINGS* Single person Married couple October in each year 1948 … … 22.4 33.8 1949 … … 21.7 32.9 1950 … … 20.2 31.0 1951 … … 18.7 28.5 1952 … … 21.3 33.3 1953 … … 20.0 31.4
Single person Married couple 1954 … 18.7 29.3 1955 … 21.3 32.4 1956 … 20.1 30.7 1957 … 19.2 29.3 1958 … 23.9 35.9 1959 … 22.4 33.9 1960 … 21.1 31.9 1961 … 23.6 35.8 1962 … 22.9 34.8 1963 … 25.6 38.8 1964 … 24.0 36.5 1965 … 27.0 41.2 1966 … 26.2 40.1 1967 … 28.4 43.4 1968 … 26.6 40.8 1969† … 27.5 42.4 1970 … 25.0 38.4 1971 … 27.1 41.8 1972 … 25.7 39.8 1973 … 26.1 40.7 1974 (August) … 30.1 46.0 * Average earnings of male, adult, full-time manual workers in manufacturing and certain other industries as determined by the Department of Employment's regular October inquiry, less tax and national insurance contributions. † The comparison is with the pension rate introduced on 3rd November 1969.
§ Mr. David Steelasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what would be the cost of raising old-age pensions by £2 for a single person and £275 for a married couple.
§ Mr. Alec JonesAbout £725 million a year, without allowing for accompanying changes in other benefits. There would be a saving of about £160 million a year on supplementary pensions if the supplementary benefit scale rates remained unchanged with the result that those who remained on supplementary benefit would gain no financial advantage from the increase in contributory pension.
§ Mr. Georgeasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT the number of claimants of supplementary benefit subjected to a deduction in their benefit on grounds of voluntary unemployment for each year since 1955; and if she will express the number of claimants so 291W penalised as a percentage of unemployed claimants, as well as giving the average amount deducted per claimant.
Year Number of Unemployed Claimants Number subject to Voluntarily Unemployed Deduction Column (3) as percentage of Column (2) Amount of average Deduction (£) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) 1955 … … … … 61,000 2,320 3.8 0.48 1956 … … … … 73,000 3,000 4.1 0.63 1957 … … … … 96,000 3,640 3.8 0.71 1958 … … … … 151,000 6,880 4.6 0.70 1959 … … … … 155,000 6,200 4.0 1. 01 1960 … … … … 128,000 5,240 4.1 0.94 1961 … … … … 131,000 7,200 5.5 0.90 1962 … … … … 202,000 9,800 4.9 1.10 1963 … … … … 185,000 7,080 3.8 0.87 1964 … … … … 131,000 4,880 3.7 1.15 1965 … … … … 112,000 4,730 4.2 1.31 1966 … … … … Information Not Available 1967 … … … … 224,000 13,580 6.1 0.62 1968 … … … … 220,000 14,590 6.6 0.63 1969 … … … … 228,000 13,420 5.9 0.62 1970 … … … … 239,000 14,580 6.1 0.63 1971 … … … … 387,000 18,680 4.8 1.36 1972 … … … … 411,000 18,600 4.5 2.15 1973 … … … … 250,000 13,680 5.5 2.46
§ Mr. Georgeasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT the number of claimants of supplementary benefit with unmet rent for each year since 1959, giving the average amount of unmet rent
Year Number of claimants with unmet rent Average amount of unmet rent Percentage of claimants with unmet rent (1) (2) (3) (4) £ 1959 … … … … 16,200 0.62 0.9 1960 … … … … 16,440 0.70 0.9 1961 … … … … 21,200 0.69 1.1 1962 … … … … 30,640 0.77 1.5 1963 … … … … 26,960 0.75 1.4 1964 … … … … 20,240 0.80 1.0 1965 … … … … 18,420 0.88 0.9 1966 … … … … Information not available 1967 … … … … 18,760 0.95 0.7 1968 … … … … Information not available 1969 … … … … 22,710 1.09 0.8 1970 … … … … 31,751 1.20 1.2 1971 … … … … 31,760 1.05 1.1 1972 … … … … 15,400 1.79 0.5 1973 … … … … 12,905 2.15 0.5
§ Mr. Georgeasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT the number of claimants of supplementary benefit who have been subjected to the revised four-week rule procedure since the revision came into operation in June of this year.
§ Mr. O'MalleyThe new review procedure is not yet operative. It is ex-
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§ Mr. O'MalleyFollowing is the available information at the time of the annual statistical inquiry, 1955–1973:
per week, and expressing the total number of claimants receiving reduced allowances as a percentage of all claimants.
§ Mr. O'MalleyFollowing is the available information at the time of the annual statistical inquiry, 1959–73:
pected to be introduced in about two months' time.
§ Mr. Georgeasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT the number of claimants of supplementary benefit investigated on grounds of cohabitation or fictitious desertion each year since 1968, 293W giving details of the action taken as a result of the investigation.
1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 Cohabitation Number of cases investigated 4,940 5,981 7,335 8,426 8,286 8,689 Number of allowances withdrawn or reduced 2,512 2,775 3,406 3,787 3,511 3,646 Number of prosecutions * 362 461 455 499 503 Fictitious Desertion Number of cases investigated 1,233 1,516 2,021 2,095 1,908 1,592 Number of allowances withdrawn or reduced 682 776 982 925 810 743 Number of prosecutions * 132 117 124 115 119 * The figures for 1968 are not available.
§ Mr. Georgeasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT the total number of supplementary benefit claimants for 1973; and if she will break down this information in a similar way to the information on supplementary benefit recipients presented in table 50 of Social Trends No. 4.
§ Mr. O'MalleyInformation relating to November 1973 is as follows:
Thousand Retirement pensioners and national insurance widows aged 60 years and over 1,747 Others over pension age 97 Unemployed with national insurance benefit 48* Unemployed without national insurance benefit 201* Sick and disabled with national insurance benefit 118 Sick and disabled without national insurance benefit 162 Women under 60 with dependent children 228 National insurance widows under 60 54 Others 21 Total persons receiving supplementary benefit 2,675* —of whom wage-stopped (unemployed) 9 * Excludes the unemployed who received no payment of supplementary benefit during week of the enquiry, made in November 1973.
§ Mr. Georgeasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT the number of unemployed and other claimants who are wage stopped, giving also the average allowance of the weekly wage stop deduction, for each year since 1953.
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§ Mr. O'MalleyThe information requested is as follows:
§ Mr. O'MalleyFollowing is the available information:
NUMBER OF CLAIMANTS WAGE-STOPPED AT TIME OF ANNUAL STATISTICAL ENQUIRY, 1953–73 Year Number Average deduction £ 1953 … … … 2,440 0.56 1954 … … … 2,720 0.47 1955 … … … 2,280 0.60 1956 … … … 2,840 0.47 1957 … … … 2,920 0.53 1958 … … … 7,000 0.61 1959 … … … 20,720 0.95 1960 … … … 15,280 1.07 1961 … … … 14,960 1.02 1962 … … … 28,400 1.10 1963 … … … 27,600 1.37 1964 … … … 16,560 1.30 1965 … … … 20,453 1.87 1966 … … … No information available 1967 … … … 37,545 1.67 1968 … … … 32,412 1.44 1969 … … … 34,038 1.65 1970 … … … 35,619 1.98 1971 … … … 23,231 1.49 1972 … … … 25,411 2.04 1973 … … … 10,335 2.01