Pensions (Hansard, 1 May 2003)

§ Mr. Frank Field
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his Answer of 31 March 2003,Official Report, column 605W, if he will break down the number of people who will remain without second-tier pension arrangements by (a) the self-employed, (b) those earning less than the lower earnings limit, (c) the unemployed and (d) other non-contributors. [109648]

§ Malcolm Wicks
Following the introduction of State Second Pension (S2P) in April 2002, we estimate that based upon evidence from the Family Resources Survey 2001–02 around 7 million people will not be accruing S2P rights nor making private pension provision.
These 7 million consist of:

(a) 1.4 million self-employed

(b) 1.2 million employees earning less than the lower earnings limit

(c) 1.0 million unemployed

(d) 3.3 million other non-contributors

These figures have been estimated using the Family Resources Survey, 2001/02. Figures do not sum to 7 million due to rounding.

§ Mr. Swire
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for what proportion of the over-70 population in Devon the state pension is their sole source of income. [109639]

§ Malcolm Wicks
This information is not available.

§ Mr. Frank Field
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer of 31 March 2003,Official Report, column 605W, if he will break down the different groups of workers who will account for the increase in those that will gain second-tier pension coverage. [109647]

§ Malcolm Wicks
We estimate that following the introduction of the State Second Pension (S2P) in April 2002, the number of people not accruing rights to S2P or making private pension arrangements will be reduced by about 4.5 million. This 4.5 million consists of 2.5 million disabled people and 2 million carers.
These figures have been estimated using the Family Resources Survey, 2001–02.
492W

§ Mr. Howard
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many advance applications have been received for the pension credit, and how many minimum income guarantee customers will automatically receive their pension credit entitlement from October. [110242]

§ Maria Eagle
The pension credit application line has been in operation since 7 April and up to 15 April had handled over 8,000 calls. Details of how many applications result from this ongoing activity will be provided on a regular basis.
By 6 October, all minimum income guarantee customers (c.1.8 million) will have been converted to pension credit.

§ Tim Loughton
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his estimate is of the number of pensioners who will benefit from changes to pension payments for long term hospital patients in 2003. [109930]

§ Malcolm Wicks
The information is not available in the format requested.
Over 20,000 pensioners are affected at any one time by reductions in their State Pension as a result of a stay in hospital of between 6 and 52 weeks. All of these pensioners will therefore benefit from the recent announcement which will change the rules so that hospital deductions are made after a stay of 52 weeks in hospital.
Notes:

(1) Estimate is based on September 2002 Retirement Pension administrative data.

(2) The above estimate represents the number of pensioners who will benefit at any given time from changes on hospital deductions. It is not possible to estimate reliably the total number of pensioners who will benefit from the recent rule changes over the course of a year.

§ Vera Baird
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what criteria are used to assess the relative living costs of single pensioners and pensioner couples when setting the rates for the basic state pension; [110850]
(2) by what means home-related costs are estimated when assessing the rates for the basic state pension for (a) single people and (b) married couples; [110851]
(3) what plans he has to review the relative levels of the basic state pension for couples and for single people. [110852]

§ Malcolm Wicks
The amount of the basic state pension paid to married women based on their husband's national insurance contributions is 60 per cent. of the amount of the husband's basic state pension.
The figure of 60 per cent. is expected to reflect the fact that some expenditure is the same for two people as for one, such as heating, lighting, rent and other shared facilities. The rate was set at the start of the National Insurance scheme and we are satisfied that this ratio is still right.
The level of the basic state pension is increased each year to ensure that, as a minimum, it retains its value in relation to prices. Since April 2001, we have uprated basic state pension by more than the annual retail price 493W increase (RPI), and for the future lifetime of this Parliament we are committed to increasing basic state pension by the higher of 2.5 per cent. and RPI.