asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he has completed his examination of the declaration of intent of the National Pensioners Convention; and what estimate he has made of the net cost of these proposals.
I have already made it clear to the National Pensioners Convention that implementation of the declaration of intent is ruled out by the very heavy costs involved. It is not feasible to put a specific cost on some of the proposals of the declaration; however, the overall public expenditure cost of full implementation is estimated to be of the order of £15 billion-£20 billion a year. The order of magnitude of the individual proposals are set out as follows:
| Cost of implementing the declaration of intent | |
| Proposal and comment | Annual Cost £ million |
| 1. Pension of >½ and ⅓ gross average earnings for couple and single person respectively | |
| Cost also includes other linked long-term benefits | *11,500 |
| 2. Six monthly up-rating | |
Proposal and comment
| Annual Cost
|
£ million
| |
| Each 1 per cent, increase in pension and other long- term benefits brought forward to May would cost £80 million in 1982–83; say 5 per cent. | *400 |
| 3. Adequate heating allowance covering all fuel | |
| Examples (a) abolition of gas and electricity standing | *250 |
| charges for pensioners; (b) extending | |
| supplementary benefit lower rate of heating | or |
| addition to all pensioners households (minimum estimate) | *380 |
| 4. Index linked Christmas bonus of £20 | |
| Each additional £1 on the bonus costs £10 million | *100 |
| 5. Reducing pension age to 60 and abolition of earnings rule | |
| Cost of lowering male pension age rises in longer | **2,500 |
| terms with new pension scheme and lower levels | **45 |
| of unemployment. Estimate on earnings rule in | (at 1980 |
| respect of present pension age. | prices) |
| 6. Adequate death grant for everyone | |
| Estimate for restoring death grant to original value, in respect of all deaths. (£190) | *110 |
| 7. Free health care on demand | |
| Unquantifiable | — |
| 8. Availability of community and personal social services | |
| Unquantifiable | — |
| 9. Appropriate accommodation including choice | |
| Unquantifiable | — |
| 10. National scheme of travel concessions | |
| Estimate is the minimum | 100 |
| 11. Access to education and leisure facilities | |
| Unquantifiable | — |
| Total (Absolute minimum) | 15,000 |
* These figures all relate to additional benefit costs which would increase public expenditure by the amounts shown. | |
** These figures relate to the net cost to the Exchequer after allowing for the higher benefit costs and taking account of the effects on income tax and national insurance contributions. | |