§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer of 3 June 2003, ref 115917, what the cost would be and how many beneficiaries there are of extending the carers premium to those with an established entitlement to carers allowance who are in receipt of a basic state pension, not eligible for the minimum income guarantee, and have no entitlement to other benefits that would disqualify the beneficiary by virtue of the overlapping benefit rules. [118238]
§ Maria EagleA carer premium can only be awarded as part of the minimum income guarantee (MIG) and would therefore not be available to those who are not eligible for MIG. However, if an amount equivalent to the carer premium was paid to all those over state pension age with an underlying entitlement to carers allowance, not eligible for MIG the anticipated cost for one year would be £100 million, with 80,000 gainers.
Notes:
Costs are rounded to the nearest ten million and caseloads to the nearest ten thousand.
408WSource:
December 2002 100 per cent. extract of administrative data from the CA computer system and November 2002 IS administrative data.