To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security pursuant to his answer on 4 July, Official Report, column 607, what increases in national insurance contribution rates would be needed to pay for a basic retirement pension of £58.65 for a single person and £94.05 for a couple if the Treasury supplement to the national insurance fund were reintroduced at the same rate as in 1979.

There would be no increase needed in national insurance contributions were the Treasury supplement to the national insurance fund to be reintroduced at its 1979 level. However a supplement at that level is equivalent to, for example, nearly 5p in the pound on basic rate income tax in 1990–91.