Pensions (Hansard, 16 January 2001)

§ Mr. Cousins
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if it is his policy to allow income drawdown from stakeholder pension individual pension funds. [145851]

§ Mr. Rooker
The rules allowing income drawdown will apply to stakeholder schemes in the same way as to other personal pension schemes.

§ Mr. Cousins
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if it is his policy to allow concurrent contributions to the state second pension and stakeholder pensions. [145862]

§ Mr. Rooker
Yes. As with other private pensions, this will be possible provided the member of the stakeholder pension scheme has not contracted out the State second pension.

§ Mr. Cox
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many retired people's only income is the State Retirement Pension. [144162]

§ Mr. Rooker
It is estimated that approximately 20,000 pensioners (less than 1 per cent.) in Great Britain received no income other than the State Retirement Pension.
Notes:
1. Pensioners are defined as single people over State Pension age (65 and over for men, 60 and over for women) and couples (married or cohabiting) where the man is over State Pension age.2. The Retirement Pension category includes basic State Pension, addition pension (from SERPS), graduated retirement benefit, dependant increases and all other components of State Retirement Pension.197W
3. Estimates are based on survey respondents' identification of different benefits and are subject to misreporting. In particular, some respondents may not have distinguished between the State Retirement Pension and Income Support, since these benefits are paid jointly. Therefore, these estimates should be treated with caution.
4. Estimates are rounded to the nearest 10,000 or 1 per cent, but are not necessarily accurate to that degree since they are subject to sampling error.
Source:
Family Resources Survey 1998–99