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Dept of Social Security

Answer

Mr. Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Havant (Mr. Willetts), of 30 January 2001, Official Report, column 139W, if he will recalculate the table on the basis that both (a) the basic State Pension and (b) the Minimum Income Guarantee were uprated with prices. [148757] Mr. Rooker: [holding answer 5 February 2001]: The information is in the table. A comparison of total net cost with my previous reply to the hon. Member for Havant suggests that uprating by prices would have reduced net expenditure by about £2 1/4 billion--from around £3 1/4 billion to around £1 billion. Estimated costs of uprating selected benefits by prices, 2001-02 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Benefit Cost Basic State Pension £1,100 million Minimum Income Guarantee between -£50 million and zero Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit for those aged 60 and over -£50 million Total cost £1,000 to £1,050 million _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Notes: 1. Figures are in cash terms and are rounded to the nearest £50 million. 2. Estimates relate to Great Britain. 3. The costs of uprating MIG, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit with prices are negative. This can be explained by the fact that the September RPI was higher (3.3 per cent.) than the September Rossi (1.6 per cent.). This means that with price uprating, pensioners' State Pensions would have increased at a faster rate than the applicable amount limits in the income-related benefits.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

148757; 362 c549W;362 c550-1W

Session

2000-01

Subjects

State retirement pensions Uprating Retail prices index

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk