HC Deb 23 March 1998 vol 309 cc56-7W
22. Mr. Quinn

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what assessment the Government have made of the range of inequality of income among pensioners. [34064]

Mr. Denham

I refer my hon. Friend to my reply given earlier today to my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore).

Mr. Webb

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the median income of(a) single pensioners, (b) married pensioners and (c) all pensioners who (i) had reached state pension age within the previous five years and (ii) were aged 80 years or above in each year for which the Pensioners Incomes Series has been constructed; and how many pensioners were in each category. [30735]

Mr. Denham

The information is set out in the tables.

Pensioner units where the head is aged 80 years or above
£
1979 1981 1987 1988 1989 1990–91 1992 1993 1994–95 1995–96
Couple gross 114.50 129.00 162.70 135.00 159.30 149.70 171.60 169.60 179.00 169.50
BHC net 111.00 120.00 143.10 123.60 143.50 136.80 159.20 159.10 171.70 157.60
AHC net 95.10 106.20 128.50 105.90 118.00 117.20 134.80 132.40 148.90 140.10
Singles gross 73.50 80.70 91.40 91.70 87.50 94.80 94.20 104.00 109.10 114.30
BHC net 68.60 74.20 82.10 82.80 77.50 86.50 87.80 97.90 102.10 105.80
AHC net 53.90 58.20 62.80 60.90 60.00 66.10 65.80 69.80 72.10 79.00
All gross 76.10 85.20 99.50 96.90 92.80 103.60 101.20 110.40 117.90 120.90
BHC net 71.40 77.90 88.90 86.90 84.50 94.70 94.70 103.70 110.00 113.00
AHC net 57.00 61.60 66.50 63.80 62.50 79.40 75.70 80.40 83.40 95.70

Number of pensioners in each category
(000s)
7979 1981 1987 1988 1989 1990–91 1992 1993 1994–95 1995–96
(i) Couples 1,000 1,000 1,100 1,100 1,100 1,000 1,050 1,000 950 1,050
Singles 700 750 750 700 750 750 700 700 700 650
All units 1,700 1,750 1,850 1,800 1,850 1,800 1,750 1,650 1,650 1,700
(ii) Couples 150 200 250 250 300 300 350 350 350 350
Singles 900 900 1,150 1,150 1,200 1,200 1,200 1,250 1,350 1,400
All units 1,100 1,100 1,450 1,400 1,450 1,500 1,550 1,600 1,700 1,750

Notes:

1. (i) Pensioner units where the head has reached State pension age within the last five years.

2. (ii) Pensioner units where the head is aged 80 years or above.

3. BHC: Before Housing Costs; AHC: After Housing Costs.

4. Numbers of pensioner units are rounded to the nearest 50,000.

5. A pensioner unit is defined as a single person over State Pension Age (SPA), or a couple where the man, defined as head, is over SPA.

6. Components may not sum to totals due to rounding.

7. All incomes are in £ per week at July 1995 prices and are rounded to the nearest 10 pence.

8. Estimates of median income levels are medians of the unequivalised income distribution.

9. Estimates indicate broad trends through time, rather than giving a clear picture of year on year changes.

10 The estimates in Table 1 differ slightly from those published in The Pensioners' Incomes Series 1995–96, owing to inaccuracies with rounding. Differences are small, up to 10 pence, except for 1979 where the difference is as large as 50 pence in some cases. A revised version of the publication will be issued as soon as possible.

Source

The Pensioners' Incomes Series 1979–1995/6.