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18 Apr 2006 : Column 429W—continued

Pension Credit

Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners in Wirral, West constituency are eligible for pension credit. [62443]

Mr. Timms: The information requested is not available.

Latest estimates of the number of pensioners entitled to the main income-related benefits, including Pension Credit, relate to financial year 2003–2004. They are available on a national basis only, as estimates cannot be reliably disaggregated at a lower geographical level. They can be found in the DWP report entitled Income Related Benefits Estimates of Take-Up in 2003–2004". Copies of the publication are available in the Library. Estimates for 2004–2005 are expected to be published in May 2006.

At the end of November 2005 4,000 pensioner households in Wirral West were in receipt of Pension Credit.

Notes:

1. The caseload figure is an early estimate, and is rounded to the nearest hundred.

2. Caseload figures are taken from the Generalised Matching Service (GMS) scan at 25 November 2005, rated up to give end-month estimates.

3. Operational processing times mean that a number of claim commencements and terminations are not reflected in this figure. The final figure incorporated within the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS) will take account of such cases.

4. Pension Credit (PC) replaced Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) on 6 October 2003. Existing MIG recipients were automatically converted onto Pension Credit on that date (assuming they still met the eligibility criteria).

5. Household recipients are those people who claim PC either on behalf of themselves only or on behalf of a household. This number is equal to the number of households in receipt of PC. The number of individual beneficiaries is the claimants plus their partners.

6. Couples may include partners who are aged less than 60.

7. Parliamentary Constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant postcode directory.

 
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Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Scotland are in receipt of pension credit, broken down by (a) local authority and (b) constituency. [62813]

Mr. Timms: The information requested is in the following table.
Pension credit recipients in Scotland as at November 2005

	Households	Individual beneficiaries
By local authority
Local authority
Totals	281,800	338,300
Aberdeen City	8,900	10,400
Aberdeenshire	9,100	11,000
Angus	5,900	7,100
Argyll and Bute	4,800	5,700
Scottish Borders	6,200	7,600
Clackmannanshire	2,400	2,900
West Dumbartonshire	6,800	8,100
Dumfries and Galloway	8,800	10,900
Dundee City	9,600	11,200
East Ayrshire	7,900	9,700
East Dumbartonshire	3,600	4,400
East Lothian	4,600	5,500
East Renfrewshire	3,100	3,800
Edinburgh, City of	17,500	20,300
Falkirk	7,900	9,500
Fife	16,600	20,000
Glasgow City	46,700	54,900
Highland	11,000	13,200
Inverclyde	6,000	7,100
Midlothian	3,600	4,300
Moray	4,200	5,100
North Ayrshire	8,500	10,400
North Lanarkshire	20,900	25,600
Orkney Islands	1,000	1,100
Perth and Kinross	6,500	7,800
Renfrewshire	10,200	12,200
Shetland Isles	1,000	1,200
South Ayrshire	6,400	7,800
South Lanarkshire	18,500	22,700
Stirling	3,600	4,300
West Lothian	7,700	9,400
Eilean Siar	2,500	3,000
By constituency
Parliamentary constituency
Totals	281,800	338,300
Aberdeen North	4,800	5,600
Aberdeen South	3,200	3,700
Airdrie and Shotts	5,400	6,700
Angus	4,900	6,000
Argyll and Bute	4,800	5,700
Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock	5,800	7,200
Banff and Buchan	4,600	5,600
Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk	5,300	6,500
Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross	3,500	4,300
Central Ayrshire	5,200	6,300
Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill	6,100	7,400
Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East	4,300	5,300
Dumfries and Galloway	5,800	7,200
Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale	4,600	5,700
Dundee East	4,500	5,400
Dundee West	6,100	7,100
Dunfermline and West Fife	3,300	3,900
East Dunbartonshire	2,500	3,000
East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow	5,100	6,300
East Lothian	4,600	5,500
East Renfrewshire	3,100	3,800
Edinburgh East	4,500	5,200
Edinburgh North and Leith	3,600	4,100
Edinburgh South	2,700	3,200
Edinburgh South West	3,300	3,800
Edinburgh West	3,300	3,900
Falkirk	5,600	6,700
Glasgow Central	6,500	7,600
Glasgow East	7,900	9,400
Glasgow North	4,200	4,900
Glasgow North East	8,800	10,400
Glasgow North West	6,500	7,600
Glasgow South	5,600	6,600
Glasgow South West	7,100	8,300
Glenrothes	5,000	6,100
Gordon	2,800	3,300
Inverclyde	6,000	7,100
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey	4,000	4,700
Kilmarnock and Loudoun	6,100	7,500
Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath	5,100	6,200
Lanark and Hamilton East	5,900	7,200
Linlithgow and East Falkirk	5,500	6,700
Livingston	4,500	5,500
Midlothian	3,600	4,300
Moray	4,200	5,100
Motherwell and Wishaw	6,200	7,400
Na h-Eileanan an lar	2,500	3,000
North Ayrshire and Arran	5,700	7,000
North East Fife	3,200	3,900
Ochil and South Perthshire	4,400	5,300
Orkney and Shetland	2,000	2,300
Paisley and Renfrewshire North	4,400	5,300
Paisley and Renfrewshire South	5,700	6,800
Perth and North Perthshire	4,600	5,400
Ross, Skye and Lochaber	3,400	4,100
Rutherglen and Hamilton West	6,700	8,200
Stirling	3,600	4,300
West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine	2,500	3,000
West Dunbartonshire	6,800	8,100

Notes:
1. These figures are early estimates. Operational processing times mean that a number of claim commencements and terminations are not reflected in the figures. The final figures incorporated within the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS) will take account of such cases.
2. Caseloads are rounded to the nearest hundred. Totals may not sum due to rounding.
3. Caseload figures are taken from the GMS scan at 25 November 2005, rated up to give end-month estimates.
4. Pension credit (PC) replaced minimum income guarantee (MIG) on 6 October 2003. Existing MIG recipients were automatically converted onto pension credit on that date (assuming constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant postcode directory.)
5. This table uses the new Scottish parliamentary constituencies created in May 2005.
6. Household recipients are those people who claim PC either on behalf of themselves only or on behalf of a household. This number is equal to the number of households in receipt of PC. The number of individual beneficiaries is the claimants plus their partners.
7. Couples may include partners who are aged less than 60.
Source:
Information Directorate: 100 per cent. data from the Generalised Matching Service (GMS).
Pension credit scan taken as at 25 November 2005.





 
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Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his estimate is of the total cost of administering pension credit since it was established, including IT and set up costs. [63303]

Mr. Timms: The information requested is not available.

The cost of administering pension credit claims during the year to March 2005 has been estimated as £237 million. This figure is an approximate assessment only.
 
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The Pension Service continues to develop its unit cost information. A modern resource management system which will support improved costing analysis is being rolled out across the Department in 2006.

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what is the anticipated future (a) pension credit expenditure in real terms assuming constant take-up and (b) projected proportion of the pensioner population who will be eligible for pension credit in (i) 2010, (ii) 2020, (iii) 2030, (iv) 2040 and (v) 2050. [63951]

Mr. Timms: Projections of pension credit expenditure in real terms are published as part of the long-term DWP benefit expenditure tables at www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/LT3.xls. For pension credit the projections assume constant overall take-up from March 2008.

The numbers eligible for pension credit in the future are subject to a range of uncertainties and a number of factors including the ways that Governments choose to uprate benefits. The table shows the projected proportion of pensioner households eligible for pension credit in each year if basic state pension was to be uprated with prices and pension credit guarantee with earnings every year to 2050.
Projected proportion of pensioner households eligible for pension credit for selected years

	Range (percentage)
2010	46–52
2020	55–61
2030	59–64
2040	65–69
2050	75–78

Notes:
1. Estimates are based on Family Resources Survey data for 2003–04, with incomes and benefits projected forward into the future in order to estimate the eligibility for each pensioner household on the survey.
2. As with National Statistics estimates of eligibility to pension credit in 2003–04, estimates are given as ranges in order to account for possible biases in Family Resource Survey data. They also take account of the effects of sampling variation. It is assumed that the size of this range remains constant in future years relative to the decreasing proportion of non-eligible pensioner households.
3. Estimates of eligibility cover all those aged above women's state pension age in the private household population of Great Britain.
4. The projections assume the continuation of the current uprating of the standard minimum guarantee by earnings, although the Government are not committed to this beyond 2008.
5. Estimates account for equalisation of state pension age between 2010 and 2020. It is assumed that the minimum age at which people can claim pension credit rises in line with women's state pension age.
6. Estimates are calibrated to the 2003–04 National Statistics estimates of non-eligibility to pension credit, which adjust 2003–04 Family Resources Survey data to take account of possible biases in reporting.

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