§ Mr. Foulkesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what would be the estimated cost to the national insurance fund of paying to those people who defer their retirement beyond statutory retirement age a 10 per cent. increase in pension for each year retirement is deferred between the ages of 60 and 65 years (women) and 65 and 70 years (men).
§ Mr. Rossi[pursuant to his reply, 20 January 1981, c. 147]: At present a person deferring retirement beyond pensionable age, 65 (men) and 60 (women), receives an increment of one-seventh per cent. of his or her pension for each week of deferment—that is, an annual increase of about 7.4 per cent. Both the pension and the increment earned are adjusted from year to year in line with price increases. The added cost of increasing the rate of increment to 10 per cent. per annum would build up gradually over a considerable number of years and would depend critically on the numbers actually deferring in future. These have been tending to fall sharply in recent years, but, on the basis of an estimated 100,000 people deferring at present, the additional cost of the proposal when mature would be £65 million a year at November 1980 benefit rates.