HL Deb 21 February 1989 vol 504 c637WA
Baroness Jeger

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What proportion of pension households are in receipt of means-tested benefits.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Social Security (Lord Skelmersdale)

The May 1988 Quarterly Statistical Enquiry indicates that approximately 1.7 million pensioners' were in receipt of income support. The latest information for housing benefit is for Autumn 1987 when the estimated total number of pensioner households2 in receipt of benefit was 3.8 million, which included 1.3 million who were also receiving supplementary benefit. Up to date information is not available to enable income support or housing benefit recipients to be shown as a proportion of all pensioner households.

  1. 1. Pensioners receiving income support are defined as those in receipt of a pensioner premium.
  2. 2. A pensioner household—a single householder of pensionable age or a married couple where at least one of the partners is of pensionable age.
  3. 3. There is no current way of identifying those pensioners who are in receipt of family credit, but the number is likely to be very small.