HC Deb 10 April 1987 vol 114 cc512-4W
Mr. Meacher

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many pensioners, and what percentage have (i) other state benefits than retirement pensions, (ii) occupational pensions, (iii) state earning related pensions and (iv) income from savings which is in each case (a) £0 to £5 per week, (b) £5 to £10 per week, (c) £10 to £20 per week, (d) £20 to £30 per week, (e) £30 to £40 per week, (f) £40 to £50 per week, (g) £50 to £60 per week, (h) £60 to £70 per week.(i) £70 to £80 per week, (j) £80 to £90 per week, (k) £90 to £100 per week and (l) more than £100 per week.

Mr. Major

[pursuant to his reply, 26 March 1987, c. 259]: The available information is shown in the tables. In Table 1, information on receipt of benefit other than retirement pensions, on occupational pensions and on savings is derived from the Family Expenditure Survey for 1985. It relates to numbers of pensioner tax units, which may be either single pensioners or married couples where the husband is aged 65 or over. It is not possible to include supplementary pension in those figures.Table 2 expresses the information in Table 1 as a percentage of all pensioner tax units.Table 3 shows the numbers of pensioner households in receipt of supplementary pension who are also in receipt of basic retirement pension, by level of supplementary pension received. These figures are for December 1984. They exclude households in receipt of supplementary pension who did not receive basic retirement pension (about 105,000), but include widows over 60 who have chosen to retain widows' pension. It is not possible to express these figures accurately as a percentage of all pensioners because of differences in the dates for which statistics are available.Table 4 shows the numbers and percentages of individual pensioners receiving state earnings-related pension, at those levels for which information is available for September 1986. These figures are for net additional pension; they exclude guaranteed minimum pension, but include amounts of additional pension payable as a result of uprating to recipients of guaranteed minimum pensions.

Table I
Number of pensioner tax units in receipt of income from various sources, 1985
Thousands
Benefits other than state retirement pensions and supplementary benefit Occupational pensions Savings
All income levels 4,090 3,440 4,810
Less than £5 1,187 468 2,577
£5-£10 624 597 603
£10-£20 1,200 766 617
£20-£30 617 387 325
£30-£40 176 217 210
£40-£50 129 190 81
£50-£60 81 122 68
£60-£70 34 102 68
£70-£80 14 108 47
£80-£90 14 108 34
£90-£100 7 81 20
Over £100 285 163

SourceFamily Expenditure Survey 1985.

Table 2
Proportion of Pensioner Tax Units in Receipt of Income from Various Sources 1985
Per cent.
Benefits other than state retirement pension and supplementary benefit Occupational pensions Savings
All income levels 60.3 50.7 70.9
£
Less than 5 17.5 6.9 38.0
5–10 9.2 8.8 8.9
10–20 17.7 11.3 9.1
20–30 9.1 5.7 4.8
30–40 2.6 3.2 31
40–50 1.9 2.8 1.2
50–60 1.2 1.8 1.0
60–70 0.5 15 1.0
70–80 0.2 1.6 0.7
80–90 0.2 1.6 0.5
90–100 0.1 1.2 0.3
Over 100 4.2 2.4

Source: Family Expenditure Survey 1985

Table 3
Pensioners receiving supplementary pension in addition to basic retirement pension (numbers of claimants ), December 1984
Thousands
All income levels 1,578
£
Less than 5 1,127
5–10 264
10–20 92
20–30 33
30–40 13
40–50 5
50–60 4
60–70 7
70–80 6
80–90 6
90–100 4
Over 100 17

Source: Annual Statistical Enquiry, December 1984

Table 4
Number and proportion of pensioners in receipt of state earnings-related pension, September 1986
Number of pensioners in receipt of state earnings-related pension (Thousands) Percentage of all pensioners in receipt of state earnings related pension 1
All income levels 1,799 18.5
£
Less than 4.99 1,543 15.9
5–7.99 145 1.5
Over 8 110 15

Source: Retirement Pension Biannual Enquiry

1Expressed as a percentage of all pensioners, excluding those with graduated pension only.

Forward to