§ Mr. FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what proportion of pensioner benefit units on income support receive (i) at least one full basic state pension and (ii) some payment of basic state pension. [78965]
§ Mr. TimmsThe information is in the table.
Income support pensioners by level of basic state pension received. Great Britain: August 1998 Number of pensioner benefit units (000) Proportion of pensioner benefit units (per cent.) All cases 1,322 100 Benefit unit with full basic state pension 1,054 79.8 Benefit unit with some payment of basic state pension 257 19.4 Benefit units without basic state pension1 11 0.8 1 Benefit Unit not in receipt of a basic State Pension but receiving a State Retirement Pension eg: cases with Additional Pension or Graduated Retirement benefit. Notes:
1. Numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand, and percentages are given to one decimal place.
2. Pensioner benefit units are defined as claims where either the claimant and/or partner (if they have one) are of pensionable age.
3. Numbers shown in individual categories with state pensions may be underestimated in couple cases due to incomplete recording of partner's national insurance numbers on the Income Support system.
4. Figures are based on a 5 per cent. sample, and are subject to sampling error.
Sources:
Income Support Statistics Quarterly Enquiry, August 1998.
Retirement Pension Statistics Summary of Statistics September 1998.