HC Deb 30 March 1987 vol 113 c405W
Mr. Spearing

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what representations he has received from or on behalf of the British Pensioners Association and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Lyell

We have received a number of letters from or on behalf of the British Pensioners Association (Canada) asking for pensions payable in Canada to be increased.

The Government accept the case in principle for paying annual increases to United Kingdom pensioners living in Canada. However, we do not have the resources to pay for all the improvements we should like to make to our social security system. We are therefore unlikely to be able to increase pensions in Canada in the foreseeable future.

3 June 1986 1 July 1986 29 July 1986 26 August 1986 23 September 1986 21 October 1986 18 November 1986 16 December 1986 13 January 1987
Post unlinked with files for two or more days 1,640 2,282 2,802 1,938 1,166 1,165 928 1,191 985
Postal claims outstanding 486 424 710 836 764 651 539 389 446
Single payment claims outstanding .. .. 610 586 1,801 1,001 109 242 305
Outstanding cases awaiting review of assessment 799 363 1,749 1,282 547 181 300 259 357
.. Figures unavailable.

Ms. Harman

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services pursuant to his reply of 19 February 1987, Official Report, column 820, what steps are being taken to reduce the amount of post not yet associated with files at the Blenheim grove Department of Health and Social Security office.

Mr. Lyell

Additional administrative assistants, the grade responsible for associating post with the relevant files, have been recruited on a casual basis. There are currently 25 in post against a complement of 19.