§ Mr. Newtonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if any of the estimated cost of abolishing the earnings rule arises from an assumption that abolition would encourage pensioners to work less and thus reduce the gross domestic product.
§ Mr. Newtonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will place in the Library the survey carried out by his Department to examine the effects of the earnings rule on invalidity pensioners.
§ Mr. OrmeThe hon. Member no doubt has in mind item 15 in the list of surveys given in my hon. Friend's reply to a Queston from the hon. Member for the Wirral (Mr. Hunt) on 16th December. This was, I regret, included in error. The survey it purports to describe is more accurately described in items 16 and 17 of that list. The survey has not yet taken place, and the preparatory work is still at an early stage. I can, therefore, give no indication as to when or in what form the findings may eventually become available.—[Vol. 922, c.820–22.]