Written question asked by Tim Loughton (Conservative) on Monday, 14 April 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 1 May 2003. It was answered by Malcolm Wicks (Labour) on Thursday, 1 May 2003 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Dept for Work and Pensions

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his estimate is of the number of pensioners who will benefit from changes to pension payments for long term hospital patients in 2003. - Includes figures and fact that not available in format requested.

Answer: Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his estimate is of the number of pensioners who will benefit from changes to pension payments for long term hospital patients in 2003. [109930] Malcolm Wicks: The information is not available in the format requested. Over 20,000 pensioners are affected at any one time by reductions in their State Pension as a result of a stay in hospital of between 6 and 52 weeks. All of these pensioners will therefore benefit from the recent announcement which will change the rules so that hospital deductions are made after a stay of 52 weeks in hospital. Notes: (1) Estimate is based on September 2002 Retirement Pension administrative data. (2) The above estimate represents the number of pensioners who will benefit at any given time from changes on hospital deductions. It is not possible to estimate reliably the total number of pensioners who will benefit from the recent rule changes over the course of a year.

Secondary information