§ Mr. Frank FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list in real terms the amount paid out in benefits in the past 30 years; and if he will divide the data according to the amount paid to pensioners and non-pensioner claimants. [15234]
§ Mr. Heald[holding answer 15 February 1996]: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the tables.
The clients group analysis is available only for 1978–79 onwards.
Client group expenditure real terms (1994–95 prices) 1965–66 to 1994–95 £ million Total benefit expenditure 1965–66 23,581 1966–67 23,947 1967–68 26,430 1968–69 28,597 1969–70 29,061 1970–71 28,774 1971–72 30,630 1972–73 32,211 1973–74 33,191 1974–75 35,204 1975–76 37,898 1976–77 40,088 1977–78 42,270 357W
Client group anlysis £ million Pensioners Non-pensioners Total benefit expenditure 1978–79 25,526 20,769 46,295 1979–80 25,335 21,589 46,924 1980–81 25,627 22,227 47,854 1981–82 27,648 25,691 53,339 1982–83 28,952 27,906 56,858 1983–84 29,990 30,712 60,702 1984–85 30,255 32,275 62,530 1985–86 31,283 33,385 64,668 1986–87 32,664 34,948 67,613 1987–88 32,687 34,058 66,744
£ million Elderly Non elderly Total benefit expenditure 1988–89 31,684 31,726 63,410 1989–90 32,201 30,628 62,828 1990–91 33,199 32,245 65,444 1991–92 34,495 37,659 72,154 1992–93 36,219 42,609 78,828 1993–94 37,672 46,272 83,944 1994–95 37,926 47,295 85,221 Note:
Information on pensioners is only available between 1978–79 and 1987–88; with the introduction of income support in April 1988, the definition was changed to elderly, ie to include expenditure for men aged 60–64.
Source:
The information has been calculated using data from the Annual Abstract of Statistics 1995.