To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what are the most recent figures on pensioners' incomes; and what were the comparable figures in 1974 and 1979.
Recent data from the 1988 Family Expenditure Survey show that the average pensioner's total net income increased by over 33 per cent. in real terms between 1979 and 1988. Table 1 shows a breakdown of the individual components which contributed towards this increase
| Table 2 | |||
| Pensioners income from savings and occupational pensions 1974, 1979 and 1988 | |||
| 1974 | 1979 | 1988 | |
| Percentage of pensioners with savings income | 53 | 62 | 74 |
| Average amount (£ per week) received from savings income | 21·50 | 15·30 | 29·80 |
| Percentage of pensioners with occupational pensions | 35 | 41 | 51 |
| Average amount (£ per week) received from occupational pension | 33·40 | 33·70 | 47·00 |
Notes:
1. Source: Family Expenditure Survey.
2. £s per week at 1988 prices.
3. Averages are based on those pensioners who actually received savings income or occupational pensions.
A greater proportion of those pensioners who had retired only recently, ie within the five years immediately preceding the survey, received incomes from these sources: in 1988, 78 per cent. of recently retired pensioners had savings income while 63 per cent. received income from an occupational pension.
In 1988, 20 per cent. of all pensioner savings income was derived from 'non-bank' sources, for example from share dividends; the same was true of 14 per cent. of savings income in 1979.
Other points to emerge from the analysis are that: the proportion of pensioners in the lowest quintile of income distribution was 28 per cent. in 1988, compared with around 40 per cent. in 1979; single pensioners who receive all their income from state benefits have income 25 per cent. higher in real terms than those in 1979; the increase for married couples was 22 per cent.; the average pensioner's gross income represented 59 per cent. of the average earnings of all manual workers; 46 per cent. of pensioners owned their homes outright in 1988 compared with only 38 per cent. in 1979.