HL Deb 16 May 2003 vol 648 cc54-5WA
Baroness Greengross

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is their latest estimate of the percentage and number of people in receipt of a United Kingdom state pension who live outside the United Kingdom whose state pension is:

(a) uprated; and

(b) not uprated. [HL2722]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Baroness Hollis of Heigham):

The information relating to the number and percentage of people receiving a UK State Pension who live in Great Britain or overseas is in the table.

Number of people receiving a UK state pension Percentage of total number of people receiving a UK state pension
Recipients of a state pension in Great Britain 10,310,000 92 per cent
Recipients of a state pension living overseas—pension uprated 410,000 4 per cent
Recipients of a state pension living overseas—pension not uprated 490,000 4 per cent
Total recipients of a state pension 11,210,000 100 per cent
Source: September 2002 State Pension Summary of Statistics

Notes:

1. Numbers in the table have been rounded to the nearest 10,000 and the percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole per cent.

2. Figures provided are for Great Britain and overseas only. The DWP only has access to Great Britain and overseas data. The Northern Ireland Office holds Northern Ireland data separately.

Baroness Greengross

asked Her Majesty's Government:

In which of (a) the 10 European Union accession countries; and (b) the 13 other possible European Union member countries, the United Kingdom state pension is not currently uprated; and how many people in receipt of a United Kingdom state pension live in each country. [HL2721]

Baroness Hollis of Heigham:

Thirteen countries have applied to become new members of the European Union.

Ten of these countries signed the Treaty of Accession to the European Union in April 2003. They are: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. These acceding countries will not become full members of the European Union until 1 May 2004.

Bulgaria and Romania are due to sign the Treaty of Accession to the European Union but this is not expected until 2007.

Turkey is not currently negotiating its membership to the European Union.

However, agreements that allow for uprating of the UK state pension already exist with Cyprus, Malta, Slovenia and Turkey.

The numbers of people receiving a State Pension who live in the 13 countries that have applied to become new members of the European Union are shown in the table:

Country Thousands
Bulgaria —
Cyprus 7.1
Czech Republic 0.1(1)
Estonia —
Hungary 0.3(1)
Latvia 0.1(1)
Lithuania 0.1(1)
Malta 2.8
Poland 1.6
Romania —
Slovakia –
Slovenia 0.1(1)
Turkey 0.7
Source: Pensions Strategy Computer System—30 September 2002

Notes:

1. Figures are subject to a high degree of sampling variation and should only be used as a guide.

2. Figures are in thousands and are rounded to the nearest hundred.

3. The use of a hyphen (-) denotes nil or neglible.