§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will set out the amount lost per week and per year which (i) a single pensioner and (ii) a married couple would have received over and above the price-indexed pension increase each year since 1979 if the earlier formula had been maintained of increasing pensions each year in line with either prices or earnings whichever was higher; and if he will set out these sums both on a weekly and annual basis for each year since 1979 at(a) current prices and (b) 1990 prices.
§ Mrs. Gillian Shephard[holding answer 15 October 1990]: Similar figures for pension rates were given in my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Brighton, Kemptown (Mr. Bowden) on 15 October at col. 741, together with an estimate of the increased national insurance contribution rates—£7.50 a week in respect of an employee on average earnings, including the employer's contribution—which would be entailed in meeting the additional cost in the present year.
It would be inappropriate to make the further calculations requested, since they would rest on the wholly unrealistic assumption that additional expenditure on the scale implied would have taken place without economic and financial effects, including higher rates of inflation and taxation than have in fact occurred, with seriously adverse consequences for pensioners themselves.