§ Mr. WinnickTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether, further to the answer given to the hon. Member for Walsall, North on 7 December,Official Report, column 233, he will publish similar estimates for April 1991; if he will include an allowance for the shortfall in the 1979 uprating relative to earnings; and if he will base his estimate of increases in earnings on data which would have been available shortly after each uprating.
§ Miss WiddecombeThe full rate of basic retirement pension, if revalued since 1979 by the higher of the annual percentage increase in prices or earnings six months before the date of the uprating would be £21.05 higher for a couple based solely on the husband's contribution and £13.05 more for a single person. The cost to the national insurance fund of these increases would amount to about £6 billion a year. It is not possible to calculate extra amounts on the basis of increases in earnings available after the April 1991 uprating.