HC Deb 23 July 1987 vol 120 cc453-4W
Sir Brandon Rhys Williams

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will set out figures showing the gross and net additional costs of awarding the full state basic pension, on the basis of citizenship or legal residence, (a) to the estimated 94,500 elderly people without entitlement to a contributory pension, and (b) to those whose contribution record is incomplete.

Mr. Scott

A residence or citizenship-based pension system would give all individuals satisfying those conditions entitlement to a full pension, irrespective of marital status or earnings history. Estimates therefore assume payment of the full rate of the single person's basic pension of £39.50 per week to all men and women, including married women currently receiving pensions based on their husbands' contribution records.

The estimated gross additional cost on retirement pensions of paying full basic pensions to those people receiving supplementary pension who are not in addition receiving any other contributory or non-contributory benefit, and to their spouses, would be about £230 million.1 The gross additional cost of paying pensions to all pensioners in receipt of reduced-rate basic pension, graduated pension only or married women's pensions would be about £1,820 million.2 A further £30 million would be needed to pay full-rate pensions to pensioners currently in receipt of non-contributory pensions.

Valid net costs cannot be given, as the system of income-related benefits would require some revision in the event of structural changes in the pensions system of this type.

Notes :

(1)This estimate is based on a figure of 101,000 claimants with 10,000 dependent spouses and is derived from the February 1986 annual statistical inquiry. The figure of 94,500 comes from the quarterly inquiry, which does not contain details of dependants needed to calculate costs as specified in the question.

(2) Does not include the cost of paying pensions to women over 60 with no entitlement to pension based on their own contributions and who will receive married women's pensions when their husbands retire. There are no reliable estimates of numbers in this group.