§ Mr. GogginsTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of the number of pensioners whose income made them not eligible for income support prior to April 1999 but who are now eligible to claim the minimum income guarantee in(a) Wythenshawe and Sale East, (b) Manchester, (c) Trafford and (d) the United Kingdom. [84331]
§ Mr. TimmsThe number of pensioner benefit units that will become entitled to Income Support in Great Britain as a result of the increase in the Income Support rates in April this year is estimated to be 65,000. This figure cannot be apportioned with any reliability to constituency or local authority areas because the sample size is not large enough. Information relating to the numbers of pensioners in receipt of Income Support as of November 1998 (the latest date for which the data is available) is in the table.
Income Support pensioners at November 1998 Pensioner benefit units Wythenshawe and Sale East Parliamentary Constituency 4,000 Manchester Local Authority District 17,000 Trafford Local Authority District 6,000 Great Britain 1,417,000 Notes:
1. "Pensioner benefit unit" means a single person aged 60 or over, or a couple where one or both members is aged 60 or over.
2. The estimates exclude pensioners in residential care and nursing homes.
3. Figures in the table are rounded to the nearest thousand cases, and are subject to a degree of sampling error.
4. Parliamentary Constituency data relates to constituency boundaries as at 1 May 1997. Local Authority data relates to boundaries as at 31 December 1998.