Written question asked by Angela Eagle (Labour) on Friday, 1 April 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 26 April 2011. It was answered by Lord Robathan (Conservative) on Tuesday, 26 April 2011 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

War Pensions

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assumptions he made in his revision of the forecast of war pensions payments between November 2010 and March 2011.

Answer: The main supply estimate and supplementary estimates for financial year 2010-11 for war pensions benefits did not change and remained at £972 million. However, the unaudited end of year forecast for financial year 2010-11 is now £935 million. This equates to a 3.8% reduction, which reflects the fall in the number of benefits paid and new claims processed each year due to the age of the war pensions scheme's customer base and the introduction of the new Armed Forces and Reserve Forces Compensation Scheme in April 2005.The estimate for financial year 2011-12 prepared in January 2010 was £965 million. This was reduced by 2.8% to £938 million in January 2011 based on an overall 4% reduction due to mortality rates in the number of claimants or potential claimants and the change from retail prices index to consumer prices index as the basis for indexation.

Secondary information