Minimum Income Guarantee (Hansard, 25 March 2002)

HC Deb 25 March 2002 vol 382 cc642-3W 642W

§ Ms Walley
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in(a) Stoke-on-Trent, North, (b) Staffordshire and (c) England he expects to have a guaranteed income of £98 per week from next April; and if he will make a statement. [25526]
643W

§ Mr. Nicholas Brown
The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is as follows.
The forecast number of claimants of the minimum income guarantee from April 2002 in England is 1,485,000.
Nationally there are over 1.7 million pensioners claiming the MIG. By April 2002 a single pensioner will be at least £15 a week better off in real terms than in 1997 from the MIG rises. A pensioner couple will be well over £23 a week better off.