§ Mr. Andrew Bowdenasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many retired women aged 60 to 65 years would qualify for the age allowance if it were extended; and what would be the cost of extending it to these women.
§ Mr. Moore[pursuant to his reply, 6 February 1984, c. 43]: I assume -that my hon. Friend has in mind an extension of age allowance to single women and widows aged 60–64 receiving the national insurance retirement pension. There are about 425,000 such women. Extending the allowance to this group alone would cost about £20 million in a full year at 1983–84 levels of income. About 225,000 women would benefit.