Lord Chelwoodasked Her Majesty's Government:
In which years the War Pensions Vote has been underspent since 1945, giving the figures for each year and an estimate for this year.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Social Security (Lord Skelmersdale)The figures for earlier years are shown in the table. The estimate of expenditure on war pensions in 1988–89 is £608 million and current expectations are that outturn will closely match that figure.
1186WA
Estimate Expenditure Underspend £'000 £'000 £'000 1946–47 101,747 85,434 16,313 1947–48 94,294 89,052 5,242 1948–49 89,762 89,678 104 1949–50 89,150 87,712 1,438 1950–51 88,430 84.896 3,534 1951–52 84,951 83,184 1,767 1952–53 91,321 90,687 634 1953–54 82,710 82,698 12 1954–55 87,602 86,745 857 1955–56 89,326 88,576 750 1956–57 89,451 89,050 401 1957–58 91,019 90,822 197 1958–59 100,821 100,479 342 1959–60 99,830 99,269 561 1960–61 96,569 95,930 639 1961–62 104,584 103,636 948 1962–63 102,512 101,862 650 1963–64 111,998 109,917 2,081 1964–65 110,857 110,362 495 1965–66 122,052 120,931 1,121 1966–67 119,124 118,358 766 1967–68 121,254 120,762 492 1968–69 126,308 124,750 1,558 1969–70 125,516 124,589 927 1970–71 128,850 127,998 852 1971–72 137,080 136,670 410 1972–73 150,243 149,689 554 1973–74 164,718 163,970 748 1974–75 203,975 203,916 59 1975–76 259,270 258,149 1,121 1976–77 285,955 282,861 3,094 1977–78 311,945 309,615 2,330 1978–79 340,930 340,131 799 1979–80 378,000 375,040 2,960 1980–81 429,000 424,472 4,528 1981–82 482,000 478,941 3,059 1982–83 508,000 504,275 3,725 1983–84 533,000 523,795 9,205 1986–87 590,000 589,450 550 NOTES:
- 1. The War Pensions Vote was initially called the War Pensions etc. Vote.
- 2. With effect from 1974–75, war pensions was grouped with certain non-contributory benfits and the new Vote was entitled the Pension Benefits (Non-Contributory) Vote.
- 3. With effect from 1983–84, the Vote was re-titled the Pensions and Disability Benefits (Non-Contributory) Vole.
- 4. Amounts underspent on the War Pensions Vote were required to be surrendered. Following the merger of War Pensions into the Pension Benefits (Non-Contributory) Vote in 1974–75, underspends on one benefit are offset against overspends on others, and any balance surrendered.
- 5. Overspends occurred on War Pensions in the years 1945–46, 1984–85,1985–86 and 1987–88.