§ 32. Mr. Kenneth Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what are the surviving numbers of war widows of the 1914–1918 war; what is their average age; and whether he has any plans to improve their pension payments.
§ Mr. PrenticeThere are some 16,350 pensions in payment to war widows of the 1914–18 War, most of whom are now in their mid-eighties. We look upon war widows as a special group who are entitled to preferential treatment. At age 70 they receive an additional age allowance which brings their standard weekly pension up to £36.10, which is £12.80 a week more than that payable to a national insurance widow. In addition, war widows have the added advantage that we recently made their pensions 583W entirely tax-free. All rates are reviewed annually and last month these elderly war widows received an increase of £6 a week. However, in the present economic circumstances we have no plans for additional improvements outside the annual review.
§ Mr. David Priceasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many war widows from the 1914–18 war still survive; what is their average age; what is the current annual cost of their war widows' pension; and what would be the annual cost of each £1 a week by which the rate of that pension might be raised.
§ Mr. PrenticeAs at 28 September 1979, the latest date for which figures are available, the number of pensions in payment to war widows of the 1914–18 war was 16,350; the average age of these widows is about 84.
The current annual cost of these pensions is about £31 million and to raise them by an extra £1 a week would cost a further £0.85 million a year.