§ 24. Mr. BurdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many pensioners in the west midlands are in receipt of either income support or housing benefit.
§ 1. Mr. HagueIn May 1992, 130,000 pensioners were receiving housing benefit alone from local authorities in the standard west midlands region and 270,000 pensioners were receiving income support in the midlands administrative region for social security.
Notes
Sources:
i. Housing Benefit and Community Charge Benefit Management Information System (1 per cent. sample).
ii Income Support Annual Statistical Enquiry (1 per cent. sample).
2. Pensioners have been defined as recipients aged 60 or over, or with a partner aged 60 or over.
3. All figures are in benefit units. A benefit unit may be a single person or a couple.
4. The standard west midlands region covers the counties of Shropshire, Warwickshire, Hereford and Worcester, Staffordshire and the metropolitan district of west midlands.
5. The midlands administrative region for social security covers most of the east and west midlands.
§ Mr. DykesTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many pensioner households were, in 1979 and in the last year for which figures are available, below the 1979 supplementary benefit level.
§ Mr. HagueOfficial estimates are available only for 1979. They were published in the "Low Income Families" series. Following a technical review in 1988 LIF was superseded by the "Households Below Average Income" series, which provides estimates of the pattern of disposable income across the United Kingdom population and analyses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 1993, 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 11 per cent. 1990–91 when measured after housing costs or 36 per cent. and 22 per cent. respectively before housing costs.
Copies of both publications are in the Library.