§ Mrs. SpelmanTo ask the Minister for Women if she will take into account women's unpaid caring and domestic responsibilities when calculating future female pensions. [133474]
§ Malcolm WicksI have been asked to reply.
People who receive carer's allowance are credited with national insurance contributions which count towards all future contributory benefits, including state pension. Others who are precluded from work because they are caring for a child or a sick or disabled person may, since 1978, be eligible for home responsibilities protection (HRP). These provisions are of particular 650W benefit to women. HRP allows for years spent caring to be discounted from the number of qualifying years needed to achieve a full basic state pension.
§ Mrs. SpelmanTo ask the Minister for Women what measures are being taken to tackle female poverty in old age. [133473]
§ Malcolm WicksI have been asked to reply.
The Department has no single definition of pensioner poverty. However, measures since 1997 to improve pensioners' incomes have been targeted largely on those in the lower part of the income distribution, many of whom are older women.
The main measures since 1997 include: above inflation increases in the basic state pension between April 2000 and April 2003, increases to the level of the minimum income guarantee and earnings uprating of the guarantee so that no single pensioner need live on less than £102.10 a week and no couple on less than £155.80 a week, the introduction of pension credit in October this year to provide extra support for those with modest savings, winter fuel payments of £200 a year for the remainder of this Parliament, an extra £100 a year within the winter fuel payments for those aged over 80 and free TV licences for someone aged 75 or over.
The Government are spending around £8 billion a year extra on pensioners as a result of these measures. They have resulted in pensioner households gaining £1,250 a year in real terms with the poorest third of pensioners gaining £1,600 a year in real terms.