§ Mr. SayeedTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many pensioner claimants of income support there are broken down by(a) sex, (b) marital status and (c) socio-economic group; and what estimate he has made of future trends in these figures and on what assumptions. [27318]
§ Mr. DenhamInformation is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is set out in the tables.
Numbers of pensioners receiving Income Support as at May 1997 All cases Single claimants Couples All cases 1,720,000 1,454,000 266,000 Male 542,000 300,000 242,000 Female 1,178,000 1,154,000 24,000 Notes:
1. Figures are not collected by socio-economic group.
2. Numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand. Due to rounding, totals may not tally.
3. Pensioners are defined where the claimant or partner is aged 60 or over.
4. Sample size 5 per cent.
5. Numbers exclude claimants who transferred to Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance with effect from October 1996.
Source:
Income Support Quarterly Statistical Enquiry, May 1997.
Forecast numbers of pensioner benefit units that will receive Income Support in the future Number of pensioner benefit units on Income Support 1998–1999 1.805,000 1999–2000 1,808,000 Notes:
1. Figures in the table are average caseloads which underlie the expenditure forecasts given in the 1997 DSS Departmental Report.
2. The forecasts are based on assumptions about the future numbers of pensioners in the population, the proportion of such pensioners that would receive Income Support, and the numbers of such pensioners that would be in residential care or nursing home accommodation. Forecasts of this type are not split by sex, marital status or socio-economic group.