§ Mr. BowdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the total number of single pensioners who are calculated for(a) income support purposes, (b) housing benefit purposes and (c) council tax benefit purposes, to have notional income from savings of £1, £2, £3, £4, £5, £6, £7, £8, £9, £10, £11, £12, £13, £14, £15, £16, £17, £18, £19 and £20 per week.
§ Mr. BurtThe information is in the tables. Details in respect of council tax benefit are not available.
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Income support Amount of notional income Single pensioners1 £1 211,000 £2 9,000 £3 7,000 £4 6,000 £5 5,000 £6 4,000 £7 3,000 £8 3,000 £9 3,000 £10 3,000 £11 2,000 £12 2,000 £13 1,000 £14 2,000 £15 2,000 £16 2,000 £17 2,000 £18 2,000 £19 2,000 £20 2,000 All cases 72,000
Housing Benefit Amount of notional income £ 1 Single pensioners 1 217,000 2 13,000 3 11,000 4 9,000 5 10,000 6 9,000 7 6,000 8 5,000 9 7,000 10 5,000 11 5,000 12 5,000 13 5,000 14 3,000 15 3,000 16 4,000 17 3,000 18 3,000 19 2,000 20 2,000 All cases 128,000 Sources: Income support quarterly inquiry, November 1992.
Housing benefit and community charge benefit management information system, income support statistics annual inquiry, May 1992.
1 Single pensioners are defined as people in receipt of income support and/or housing benefit aged 60 or over who do not have a partner.
2 The figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand.
§ Mr. BowdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what percentage of(a) single pensioners and (b) pensioner couples were receiving means-tested benefits in the latest year for which figures are available.
§ Mr. BurtThe information is in the tables:
Number of cases Percentage Income support: Single pensioners 1,463,000 33.3 Pensioner couples 254,000 9.8 Family credit: Single pensioners 220 [...]1 Pensioner couples 1,300 [...]1 Disability working allowance: Single pensioners 26 [...]1 Pensioner couples 51 [...]1 Housing benefit/Community charge benefit: Housing benefit only Single pensioners 187,000 4.3 Pensioner couples 64,000 2.5 Community charge benefit only Single pensioners 524,000 12.1 Pensioner couples 371,000 14.3 HB and CCB Single pensioners 639,000 14.8 Pensioner couples 337,000 13.0 Notes:
Sources:
1. Income support statistics, quarterly inquiry, November 1992.
Family credit 5 per cent. sample of awards, April 1993.
Disability working allowance caseload allowing for three months' backdating of awards, June 1993.
Housing benefit and community charge benefit management information system annual 1 per cent. sample of cases in Great Britain, May 1992. 1992 Provisional estimates, Office of Population Censuses and Surveys.
428W2. Income support figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand. Percentages are correct to one decimal place.
3. Percentages are of the estimated numbers of single pensioners and pensioner couples in private households in Great Britain.
4. For income support, housing benefit, community charge benefit and disability working allowance pensioners are cases where the recipient and/or the partner are aged 60 or over. For family credit pensioners are cases where the main earner is aged 60 or over.
§ Mr. BowdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will express the value of the state pension for a single person as a percentage of average male earnings at April.
§ Mr. HagueThe answer is 15.9 per cent.
Source: Employment Department's new earnings suvey—all adults average weekly earnings.
§ Mr. BowdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is his best estimate of the number of pensioner households with total weekly incomes below income support level.
§ Mr. HagueInformation is not available in the precise form requested. The latest estimates for the take-up of income-related benefits are for 1989 and show that there were around 1.3 million pensioners who were eligible for but not claiming income support.
Estimates of take-up of income support are subject to particular uncertainty because of under-reporting of receipt of benefit in the family expenditure survey on which the figures are based. This particularly affects pensioners who often fail to distinguish between retirement pension and income support which are paid as one combined payment.