| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Blood Stocks
Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what consultation he has had with the chairman of the university hospital of Wales concerning the levels of blood transfusion stocks; and what assessment he has made of the impact which blood stock levels have had on non-emergency operations in the last 12 months. [8456]
Mr. Hague: None. Blood stock levels are a matter for the national Blood Transfusion Service (Wales) in discussion with the NHS trusts concerned.
SOCIAL SECURITY
State Pensions
12. Mr. Riddick: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what representations he has received in favour of allowing people to claim a state pension from 60 years of age; and if he will make a statement. [6856]
15. Mr. Harry Greenway: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of the additional cost of paying a full state pension from 60 years. [6859]
16. Mr. Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has for the state retirement pension; and if he will make a statement. [6860]
26. Mr. Booth: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the current old-age pension provision. [6870]
Mr. Lilley: I have recently received only one representation in favour of allowing people to claim the state pension from age 60--from the hon. Member for Peckham (Ms Harman). To reduce the minimum age for claiming state pension to age 60 without increasing the burden on the taxpayer would mean that a single person would have a cut in their basic pension of £20 a week for the rest of their life.
13. Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has to change the method of payment of the state pension. [6857]
Mr. Heald: We are introducing a benefit payment card for those who wish to continue to receive their pensions and benefits at the Post Office. The change has started successfully with child benefit. We intend to test the system thoroughly before paying further benefits, including retirement pensions, by card. People who choose to have their pensions paid into a bank or building society will not be affected by this change.
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list the changes he has made in his policy towards the basic retirement pension in the current Parliament; and if he will make a statement. [6846]
Mr. Heald: In the 1995 Pensions Act we brought forward the following changes in the basic state retirement pension:
from 6 April 2010, over a period of 10 years the state pension age for women will gradually rise from age 60 to 65;
10 Dec 1996 : Column: 177
- from 2010 both men and women will be able to defer claiming their pension indefinitely. The incremental rate will rise from 7.5 per cent. to 10.4 per cent. a year;
from 2010 the rules relating to derived rights pensions will be equalised so that both men and women will be able to claim category B retirement pension based on the contribution record of their spouse if their own record is insufficient for a category A retirement pension; and
from 2010 the rules for the award of adult dependency increases (ADI) will be simplified so that either a man or a woman of state pension age will be able to claim on ADI in respect of the younger spouse provided he or she does not have earnings, entitlement to another personal NI benefit or an occupational or personal pension which is more than the standard rate of unemployment benefit.
Benefit Payments (Non-UK Nationals)
14. Mrs. Gorman: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on his Department's policy for issuing benefit payments to non-UK nationals. [6858]
Mr. Roger Evans: We have introduced significant changes to the Social Security regulations to narrow the access non-UK nationals have to the benefit system. The habitual residence test has dramatically reduced the number of awards of income support, jobseeker's allowance, housing benefit and council tax benefit claims to European non-UK nationals.
People from outside Europe are subject to immigration controls. Those whose right to reside or remain in Great Britain is subject to any limitation or condition cannot become a charge upon public funds. Regulations have been introduced that extend the list of benefits not available to this group to include all the non-contributory benefits, and restrict the benefit entitlement of asylum seekers.
Income-related Benefits
17. Mr. Pope: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the increase in social security expenditure on income-related benefits in real terms since 1979. [6861]
Mr. Burt: Income-related benefit expenditure rose from £8 billion in 1978-79 to £31.5 billion in 1995-96.
Although the number of people on income support has remained steady over the last four years, unemployment has fallen by over 950,000 since December 1992 and is still on a downward trend. This fall has been offset by increases in the number of pensioners, lone parents and people with disabilities claiming income support.
One-parent Families
18. Mr. Barry Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement concerning poverty in one-parent families. [6862]
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: No Government have agreed on a simple or meaningful way to define poverty.
Many lone parents are less well off because they do not work. The Government have substantially enhanced in-work benefits to help them improve their living standards. Over 200,000 lone parents have moved into
10 Dec 1996 : Column: 178
work supported by family credit since 1992, and from April 1997 the new parent plus scheme will pilot ways of helping up to 100,000 lone parents into work.
19. Mr. Foulkes:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what representations he has received about the operation of the all work test for incapacity benefit. [6863]
Mr. Burt:
We have received a number of representations from hon. Members and members of the public.
During the development of the test the Department consulted widely and took account of the responses in designing the all work test and associate procedures.
20. Mr. Gerrard:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what action his Department his taking to combat housing benefit fraud by landlords. [6864]
Mr. Heald:
We have in place a comprehensive strategy for combating all housing benefit fraud, including landlord fraud. For example, this year we have provided £1 million in start-up funding for a pilot local authority team to tackle organised fraud across London borough boundaries. We propose to take further powers to detect and punish fraudsters, including fraudulent landlords, in the Social Security Administration (Fraud) Bill, now in Committee.
24. Mr. Robathan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what rewards and penalties he plans to give local authorities to encourage them to reduce housing benefit fraud. [6868]
Mr. Roger Evans:
Each local authority is set a threshold of weekly benefit savings to be made through the detection of housing benefit and council tax benefit fraud. Local authorities can earn additional subsidy through performance in relation to their weekly benefit savings thresholds, and can have subsidy withheld for poor performance.
We are currently consulting the local authority associations on the proposed arrangements for 1997-98.
The Social Security Administration (Fraud) Bill contains proposals to strengthen my right hon. Friend's powers to increase subsidy to encourage local authorities to combat fraud and clarifies his existing broad powers to reduce subsidy.
21. Ms Quin:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what recent representations he has received about the Child Support Agency. [6865]
Mr. Andrew Mitchell:
We regularly receive representations from a wide variety of sources. While many continue to involve cases in which the standard of service is still not as good as we would like, they reveal a growing acceptance that child support is a permanent feature of British life and that the agency is showing continuing improvements in performance.
10 Dec 1996 : Column: 179
23. Mr. Nigel Griffiths:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the number of lone parents on (a) income support in the United Kingdom and (b) on comparable benefits in other EU countries. [6867]
Mr. Andrew Mitchell:
At the end of November 1995 there were 1,095,000 income support recipients in the United Kingdom receiving the lone parent premium. Social assistance benefits in other EU countries are not strictly comparable with income support: countries such as Greece, Portugal and Italy have very limited schemes; some schemes are local, others national; and most other countries require lone parents to be available for work even when they have children of school age.
Notes:
1. The figure has been rounded to the nearest thousand.
2. The figure given is the number of income support recipients who receive the lone-parent premium. This excludes some one parent families who receive a higher-value premium by reason of age and/or disability.
Source:
"Income Support Statistics Quarterly Enquiry" November 1995.
"Northern Ireland 100 per cent Income Support Caseload" count.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |