To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many women in total have received a pre-1950 widow’s pension arising from their husbands’ service in the armed forces prior to August 1950; how many women are receiving such a pension; what the value is of such a pension; what the cost of such pensions was in the last year for which figures are available; and what the total cost of such pensions has been since their inception. (126555)

[holding answer 12 March 2007]: I have been asked to reply.

Neither the Department for Work and Pensions nor the Ministry of Defence holds the specific information requested on the number of women who received—or are still receiving—a widow’s pension arising from their husband’s service in the armed forces prior to August 1950.

I can confirm that there are 38,425 War Widows pensions in payment arising from their spouse’s service both before and after August 1950. We cannot ascertain how many of those will be before August 1950 without trawling through the individual records which would require disproportionate administrative effort.

In relation to the question of costs I can confirm that the current average weekly value of a widow’s pension is £100.76 for all war widows irrespective of date. This gives an annual cost for all widows’ pensions of approximately £200 million for the period up to 31 December 2006. The overall average weekly payment to widows or widowers including supplementary allowances is £191.09.

Detailed financial information relating to war pension costs has been issued on a quarterly basis by the Defence Analytical Services Agency since 2001 and the relevant publications are available in the Library of the House.