Written question asked by Nigel Waterson (Conservative) on Wednesday, 24 February 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 26 February 2010. It was answered by Angela Eagle (Labour) on Tuesday, 23 March 2010 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Pensions

Question: (2) what assessment she has made of the effect on entitlement to income-related benefits of an annual increase in the trivial commutation limit in line with (a) earnings and (b) inflation in each of the next three years;

Answer: No estimates of the effect on income-related benefits of increasing the trivial commutation limit in line with earnings or inflation have been made.From November 2009 we have increased the amount of capital completely ignored in the calculation of pension credit and housing and council tax benefit for pensioners from £6,000 to £10,000. This change will benefit around 500,000 pensioners and will mean around 88 per cent. of pension credit recipients will have all of their capital ignored in their pension credit assessment.

Secondary information