§ Mr. BoothTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many pensioner households were below the 1979 supplementary benefit level in 1979; and how many were below the 1979 level in the latest year for which the figure is available.
§ Mr. BurtOfficial estimates of the number of pensioner households below the 1979 supplementary benefit levels are only available for 1979. They were published in the low income families—LIF—series. Following a technical review in 1988, LIF was superseded by the households below average income—HBAI—series which provides estimates of the pattern of disposable income across the United Kingdom population and analyses change over time. The latest edition of HBAI, published in 1992, shows a reduction in the number of pensioners in the bottom 10 per cent. of the income distribution from 31 per cent. in 1979 to 14 per cent. in 1988–89, when measured after housing costs—36 and 23 per cent. respectively before housing costs—after adjustment for inflation. Copies of both publications are in the Library.