§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer of 25 May 2004,Official Report, column 1513W, on pensions, what the net present value is of the expenditure projections shown in the table. [178871]
§ Malcolm WicksThe information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 25 May 2004,Official Report, column 1513W, on pensions, what the assumptions are for the uprating of each of the benefits covered in the table. [178872]
§ Malcolm Wicks[pursuant to the reply, 25 May 2004, Official Report, c. 1513 W]: The current policy on the uprating of the various elements of the expenditures table found at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/ad/asd4/Table3_Long_Term_Projections.xls is given in Table 1.
These policies are applied when estimating the expenditure on these benefits for future years, using the latest HM Treasury medium term assumptions for the annual movements up to 2006–07. For long-term projections beyond 2006–07, assumptions as found in Table 2 are used.
1260W
Table 1: Assumptions for the uprating of various pensioner benefits Benefit Uprating assumption Basic State Pension State Earnings-Related Pension/
State Second Pension
Pension Credit
RPI with 2.5 per cent. underpin RPI /Earnings/Constant
(depending on element)
Guarantee Credit: Earnings
Savings Credit: RPI with 2.5 per
cent. underpin Additional
Amounts: Rossi
Winter Fuel Payments Over 75s TV licences
Christmas Bonus
Housing-related Benefits
Attendance Allowance, Disability
Living Allowance
Constant RPI + 1.5 per cent.
Constant
n/a
RPI
Table 2: Long-term assumptions for various indices, as used in for long-term expenditure projections Index Long-term assumption (percentage) RPI 2.58 RPI with 2.5 per cent. underpin 2.83 Rossi 2.33 Earnings 4.58
§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer of 4 March 2004,Official Report, column 1040W, on benefit payments (pensioners), whether the percentage figures include both pensioners in a couple in receipt of their benefits. [178874]
§ Malcolm WicksThe percentage figures are based on the number of individuals aged 60 or over in a benefit unit, which includes both the benefit claimants and their partners.