§ Mr. WinnickTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the extra weekly amount married and single pensioners would now receive if the earnings link had not been broken.
§ Miss WiddecombeThe full-rate, basic retirement pension, if it had been uprated since 1979 by the higher of prices or earnings, would today be £58.65 per week. For a married couple where the wife is receiving a pension based on her husband's contributions, the combined amount payable would be £94.05. The extra amounts received would therefore be £11.75 and £18.95 respectively. This would cost national insurance contributors an extra £5.5 billion in 1990–91. What really matters to pensioners is their total income from all sources; this rose on average by 31 per cent. between 1979 and 1987.
§ Mr. CanavanTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether he will list, for each member state of the European Community, the rate of weekly state retirement pension for(a) a single person and (b) a married couple.
§ Miss WiddecombeI refer the hon. Member to the 1989 edition of the Department's publication, "Tables of Social Benefit Systems in the European Communities", a copy of which is in the Library. These tables set out the levels of pension in the national currencies together with the sterling equivalent converted according to the purchasing power parity figures as shown in the introduction to the tables.