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SOCIAL SECURITY
Travel-to-work Costs
Mr. Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is her estimate of (a) the cost to her Department and (b) the numbers gaining, if the costs of travel-to-work were disregarded in full for claimants of (i) income support, (ii) jobseeker's allowance, (iii) housing benefit and (iv) council tax benefit; and what is her estimate of the costs and numbers gaining if such costs were subject to a taper of (X) 70 per cent. and (Y) 50 per cent. for costs exceeding the level of the disregard. [2967]
Mr. Keith Bradley: Our objective is to reduce poverty and welfare dependency and to promote work incentives. One of our first steps will be to help people off welfare and into work.
The information is in the table.
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| Benefit | All costs | 70 per cent. taper | 50 per cent. taper | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costs £ million | Gainers | Cost £ million | Gainers | Cost £ million | Gainers | |
| Income support/income-based jobseeker's allowance cases | 15 | 80,000 | 10 | 80,000 | (10)-- | 80,000 |
| Contribution-based jobseeker's allowance only cases | (10)-- | 10,000 | (10)-- | 10,000 | (10)-- | 10,000 |
| Housing benefit | 70 | 160,000 | 50 | 160,000 | 35 | 160,000 |
| Council tax benefit | 20 | 120,000 | 15 | 120,000 | 10 | 110,000 |
(10) Denotes negligible cost i.e. less than £2.5 million.
1. Modelled on the 1994-95 Family Resources Survey (FRS) uprated to 1997-98 benefit levels and earnings.
2. Costs are rounded to the nearest £5 million, gainers to the nearest 10,000.
3. The estimate for income support and jobseeker's allowance (JSA) has been combined due to difficulties in separately identifying the unemployed not in receipt of contributory benefit on the FRS.
4. This is a deadweight estimate: there is insufficient information on which to estimate possible behavioural responses.
5. A number of benefit units on family credit would be better off on income support/JSA as a result of this change. It is assumed that they do move onto out of work benefits, and the IS/JSA(Income Based) cost is net of the family credit saving.
6. No figures are collected directly on the cost of running cars and motorcycles. Instead, costs are estimated using mileage rates (42 pence per mile for cars and nine pence per mile for motorcycles). Outlying cases have been ignored.
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Pension Age
Mr. Nigel Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what proportion of women aged 60 years in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available have ceased working and started to draw their state pension. [3847]
Mr. Denham: We will retain the Basic State Pension as the foundation of pension provision, increasing it at least in line with prices and we will review the central areas of insecurity for older people.
| Year | Proportion of women aged 60 who have been awarded Retirement Pension and have paid Class 1 NICs in the tax year of their 60th birthday prior to that date, and whose employers have not subsequently paid any Category C NI contributions in respect of them during the remainder of that same year (per cent.) |
|---|---|
| 1994-95 | 9 |
| 1993-94 | 9 |
| 1992-93 | 8 |
| 1991-92 | 8 |
| 1990-91 | 7 |
| 1989-90 | 8 |
| 1988-89 | 7 |
| 1987-88 | 8 |
| 1986-87 | 7 |
| 1985-86 | 8 |
1. The figures are for Great Britain and are derived from the 1 per cent. sample of National Insurance Records analysed using the February 1996 version of the Lifetime Labour Market Database.
2. Category C contributions are paid by employers and are recorded on the P14 End of Year Return when an employee has no liability due to reaching State Pension Age. They may also be paid where people have multiple employments and earnings are expected to exceed the Upper Earnings Limit for National Insurance, thus avoiding a rebate of contributions. It has been assumed that for all women in the tax year of their 60th birthday, Class C contributions arise after that birthday and therefore signal that the woman has not retired reaching State Pension Age.
3. The percentages in the table are of the estimated resident population for each year supplied by the Population Estimates Unit, OPCS.
Mr. Nigel Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate she has made of the cost per year of additional (a) income support, (b) housing benefit and (c) council tax relief if the pension age of women were raised to 65 years. [3846]
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Mr. Bradley:
The policies of the previous administration have created real poverty, growing inequality and widespread insecurity for pensioners. We believe that all pensioners should share fairly in the increasing prosperity of the nation.
| Year | Income related benefit costs £ million |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 500 |
| 2035 | 300 |
1. Costs are estimated using the approach discussed in Appendix 1 of the discussion document Options for Equality in State Pension Age CM1723, adjusted to 1994-95 price levels and a phasing profile beginning in 2010 taking two years to achieve each single year of State Pension Age change.
2. As in the discussion document Options for Equality in State Pension Age Cm1723, estimates are provided for 2025, when the financial effects are likely to be at their maximum, and 2035 when the estimates should provide a reasonable representative indicator of the scale of the effects up to 2050.
3. Estimates are subject to considerable uncertainty and are rounded to the nearest £100 million. They should be interpreted as broad indicators rather than precise estimates.
Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance
Mr. Pond: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate she has made of the cost, in the latest year for which figures are available, of introducing an extension period for the payment of income support and jobseeker's allowance mortgage interest, equivalent to the scheme for extended payments of housing benefit and council tax benefit for the newly employed. [5445]
Mr. Keith Bradley: The estimated cost of introducing an extension period for the payment of mortgage interest, in line with current provisions available in both housing benefit and council tax benefit for the newly employed, is £4 million a year.
Earnings Disregards
Mr. Pond: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what would be the current value of the earnings disregards which apply for housing benefit, income support and income-related benefit for the unemployed if they had been uprated in line with these benefits since 1988. [5443]
Mr. Keith Bradley: Our objective is to reduce poverty and welfare dependency and to promote work incentives. We will develop a system that supports work, savings and honesty.
The information requested is in the table.
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1. The Retail Price Index (all items) less rent, local taxes and Mortgage Interest payments as published by the Office of National Statistics, has been used in this table.
2. Jobseeker's allowance replaced income support and unemployment benefit as the main benefit for the unemployed in October 1996.
3. The standard disregard is £5 a week, but a higher £15 disregard is available to the following groups:--lone parents entitled to the lone parent premium; disabled people entitled to the disability premium; certain people aged over 60; carers entitled to the carer premium; members of certain specialist groups eg: part-time firefighters and reservists.
4. Couples have the first £10 of their earnings disregarded.
5. The £15 disregard in housing benefit was increased for lone parents to £25 in October 1990.
6. The £40 child care disregard in housing benefit was increased to £60 in April 1996. From April 1998 it will be increased further to a maximum of £100 a week where there are two or more children in the family.
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