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Minimum Income Guarantee
Mr. Field:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what definition of average earnings will be used with respect to the commitment to uprate the minimum income guarantee in line with average earnings. [67759]
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Mr. Timms:
The Minimum Income Guarantee will be increased year by year as resources allow. Our aim is that over the longer term, it should rise in line with earnings so that all pensioners can share in the rising prosperity of the nation. To do this we intend to monitor the movement on average earnings across the whole economy.
Mr. Webb:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security by how much it would have been possible to increase the age addition for pensioners aged over 80 years, taking account of savings in means-tested benefits and higher income tax revenues, if the £2.5 billion allocated to the pensioner income guarantee had instead all been allocated to this purpose. [68861]
Mr. Timms
[holding answer 2 February 1999]: The £2.5 billion package of measures to tackle pensioner poverty over the next three years includes provision for the Minimum Income Guarantee and Winter Fuel Payments as well as free eye tests for the over 60s and concessionary travel. We have assumed expenditure of about £0.8 billion a year.
A net increase in expenditure of £0.8 billion on the age addition in 1999-2000 would result in an estimated weekly increase of about £11.90.
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Mr. Field:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what proportion of people have worked for (a) 0 to five years, (b) six to 10 years, (c) 11 to 15 years, (d) 16 to 20 years, (e) 21 to 25 years, (f) 26 to 30 years and (g) 30 years or more of their working life; and if these data can be presented for (i) (1) men and (2) women and (ii) those in each income quintile. [68635]
Mr. Timms:
[holding answer 1 February 1999]: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the tables.
| Percentage | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of years worked | All employed or self-employed | Self-employed at any time | Employed earners only |
| 0-5 | 10 | -- | 10 |
| 6-10 | 4 | -- | 4 |
| 11-15 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 16-20 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 21-25 | 5 | 1 | 3 |
| 26-30 | 6 | 2 | 4 |
| 30 or more | 66 | 20 | 48 |
| Total | 100 | 26 | 74 |
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| Percentage | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Employed earners only Reckonable earnings from class 1 NICs during 1995-96 | ||||||
| Number of years worked | Nil | £1-£4,575 | £4,576 £9,151 | £9,152-£13,727 | £13,728 £18,303 | £18,304 and over |
| 0-5 | 10 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 6-10 | 4 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 11-15 | 3 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 16-20 | 2 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 21-25 | 3 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 26-30 | 3 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 30 or more | 10 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 9 | 15 |
| Total | 34 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 9 | 16 |
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Notes:
1. The answer is based on those aged 54 years old at 5 April 1996. This is the only age group at present on which full annual details of their National Insurance (NI) record is known, since the commencement of their working life i.e. aged 16 during the 1957/58 tax year.
2. Those shown in the tables are those who have had earnings from employment or self-employment and paid National Insurance Contributions (NICs) during a tax year. It does not therefore contain details of anyone who may have had earnings below the weekly lower earnings limit for NICs in any one tax year or other source of income.
3. It self-employed NICs have been paid in any tax year then details of the number of years worked, self-employed or employed, have been shown in the self-employed at any one time column.
4. Those who have had employed earnings and paid NICs during their working life to date have been shown in each earnings quintile by the amount of earnings on which NI has been paid during the tax year 1995-96. The upper earnings limit for 1995-6 was £22,880.
5. Percentages have been calculated as percentages of all 54 year olds which are held on the LLMDB. This may include some people who do not now reside in Great Britain although at some point in their working life have paid into the National Insurance system.
6. Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number.
7. "--" denotes less than 0.5 per cent.
Source:
Lifetime Labour Market Database (LLMDB) which contains a 1 per cent. sample of the National Insurance Recording System (NIRS) taken at February 1997.
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Mr. Oaten:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) if he will list the groups of disabled people which will automatically be exempted from the new system of periodically reviewing awards of disability living allowance; [69224]
Mr. Bayley:
From April 1999 a new system of periodically reviewing entitlement to Disability Living Allowance (DLA) will be introduced. We intend to incorporate the lessons already learned and to evaluate and refine the process as it develops. At the outset not only will DLA recipients whose cases were examined by the Benefit Integrity Project (BIP) be excluded from the process but also people in any one of the specific categories previously excluded from the action of the BIP which are listed below.
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(2) if the proposed system of periodically reviewing awards of disability living allowance announced on 28 January will include the safeguards announced on 9 February 1998 in respect of the Benefit Integrity Project. [69220]
Groups to be excluded at the outset:
1. People receiving the higher rate of the DLA mobility component and either the highest or the middle rate of the DLA care component who are:
Paraplegic
Tetraplegic
Quadriplegic
Both deaf and blind
Double amputees
Severely Mentally Impaired 1
Over the age of 65, or
With an award made prior to April 1992
2. People receiving the higher rate of the DLA mobility component and the highest rate of the DLA care component with:
Cystic Fibrosis
Dementia
Haemodialysis
Hyperkinetic Syndrome
Learning difficulty 1
Multiple Allergy Syndrome
Multiple Sclerosis
Motor Neurone Disease
Neurological Disease (including Muscular Dystrophy)
Parkinson's Disease
Total Parenteral Nutrition, or
Who are terminally ill 1
3. People with a fixed period award due to end within the next three years will also be excluded. Safeguards developed and introduced during the lifetime of the BIP will be carried forward into the new process. This will include the changes in evidence gathering introduced on 9 February 1998; which ensured that no decision to reduce or remove entitlement to DLA is based solely on the information provided by the claimant.
1 This category applies only to certain people within these broad definitions.
Minimum Wage
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of the effect of the introduction of the minimum wage on the average gross weekly earnings of disability working allowance claimants. [69751]
Mr. Bayley: The average gross weekly earnings of Disability Working Allowance recipients will increase from £99 to £106.60 in 1999-2000 prices.
- Notes:
- 1. Around 1.25 per cent. of DWA recipients will float off the benefit on payment of the minimum wage, and have been excluded in deriving the second figure.
- 2. Unsuccessful claimants will remain as such on payment of a minimum wage.
- 3. Analysis allows that partner's earnings may also increase on payment of minimum wage.
- 4. Analysis based on 100 per cent. count of DWA recipients.
- Source:
- Disability Working Allowance Statistics Quarterly Inquiry, July 1998.
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Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of the effect of the introduction of the minimum wage on the average gross weekly earnings of the main earners in families in receipt of family credit. [69749]
Angela Eagle: Average gross weekly earnings of main earners in families in receipt of Family Credit are estimated to increase from £121 to £129 at 1999-2000 prices.
- Notes:
- Around 3 per cent. of Family Credit (FC) recipients are estimated to float off benefit after the introduction of the minimum wage. These have been excluded in deriving the second figure.
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- Estimates based on a 5 per cent. sample of FC recipients and the 1995-6 Family Resources Survey uprated to 1999-2000 prices.
- Estimates assume no restoration of earnings differentials above the minimum wage and no employment effects.
- Analysis shows that partners earnings may also increase on introduction of the minimum wage.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of the effect of the introduction of the minimum wage on the number of disability working allowance claimants with gross weekly earnings of (a) under £40, (b) £40 to £79.99, (c) £80 to £119.99, (d) £120 to £159.99, (e) £160 to £199.99, (f) £200 to £249.99, (g) £250 to £300 and (h) £300 and over. [69752]
Mr. Bayley:
The information is in the table.
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| Earnings | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group | All | Under £40 | £40 to £79.99 | £80 to £119.99 | £120 to £159.99 |
| All | 19,300 | 530 | 6,070 | 5,130 | 4,370 |
| Earnings above Minimum Wage | 10,840 | 500 | 2,190 | 2,990 | 2,350 |
| Gain from Minimum Wage, Same DWA | 2,170 | 10 | 2,130 | 20 | * |
| Gain from Minimum Wage, Less DWA | 6,050 | 30 | 1,720 | 2,070 | 1,940 |
| Gain from Minimum Wage, Float off DWA | 240 | * | 30 | 50 | 70 |
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Notes:
1. Figures may not add up due to rounding, and will not be accurate to nearest 10
2. "*" represents a figure less than 5
3. No benefit unit with a Disability Working Allowance (DWA) recipient will be worse off after the introduction of the minimum wage and those with higher earnings will have higher total income
4. This is the first time the aggregate population figure has been used in the public domain, and is consistent with the Pre-Budget Report
5. Unsuccessful claimants will remain as such on payment of minimum wage
6. Analysis allows that partner's earnings may also increase on payment of minimum wage
7. Some self-employed DWA recipients report no earnings, and it is assumed this practice will be unaffected by the introduction of the minimum wage
8. Analysis based on a 100 per cent. count of DWA recipients
Source:
Disability Working Allowance Statistics Quarterly Inquiry, July 1998
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