HC Deb 01 March 1999 vol 326 cc597-8W
Mr. Field

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the numbers of people who will no longer be able to claim widow's pension and will instead be entitled to the transitional time-limited allowance within each quintile of the income distribution. [73805]

Angela Eagle

The position in each quintile of the income distribution of future claimants of Bereavement Allowance cannot be known.

The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the table.

Position of recipients of current widow's benefit in income distribution by quintile
Percentage
Income quintile Before housing costs After housing costs
First 22 18
Second 23 19
Third 20 24
Forth 21 18
Top 15 22

Source:

Figures in the table are from the 1996–97 Households Below Average Income dataset based on the Family Resources Survey.