HC Deb 18 March 1993 vol 221 cc375-6W
Mr. Knox

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will publish figures for 1992 showing the numbers and percentages of(a) men and (b) women who reached state pension age with entitlement to (i) a full category A old age pension or national insurance invalidity pension, (ii) a full category B old age pension or NI invalidity pension equivalent and (iii) no basic old age or invalidity pension.

Miss Widdecombe

The information is not available in the form requested.

The available information regarding recipients of retirement pension resident in Great Britain at 31 March 1992 is in the table:

thousands
Men aged 65 Women aged 60
Full category A retirement pension 180.0 46.1
Full category B retirement pension (widow/widower) 4.0
Full category B retirement pension (married woman)1 n.a. 23.1

Notes:

1. The standard rate of category B retirement pension payable to a married woman is approximately 60 per cent. of the full category A rate.

(i) Information regarding the individual ages and rates of notional entitlement to retirement pension is not available in respect of invalidity benefit recipients who have attained pensionable age.

(ii) The following main categories of benefit recipients are not shown in the table:

people receiving pension at less than the full rate; women receiving pension partly on their own and partly on their husbands' contributions; people receiving invalidity benefit post-pensionable age.

Provisional population estimates for mid-1991, the latest date for which information is available, show 264,300 men aged 65 and 297,300 women aged 60 resident in Great Britain.