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Home Responsibilities Protection

Volume 463: debated on Monday 23 July 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 8 February 2007, Official Report, column 1226W, on home responsibilities protection (HRP), what estimate he has made of the number of women who began to receive state retirement pension who had any recorded HRP, including women for whom such HRP did not reduce the number of qualifying years needed for a full state pension, in each year between 1978-79 and 2004-05. (151449)

The available information is set out in the following table.

The second column of the table shows the number of women aged 60 in each financial year from 1985-86 to 2004-05 with some entitlement to basic state pension who had home responsibilities protection (HRP), including women for whom such HRP did not reduce the number of qualifying years required for a full basic state pension.

Number of women with HRP, including those for whom HRP did not reduce qualifying years needed for full BSP

Number

1985-86

20,000

1986-87

30,000

1987-88

30,000

1988-89

40,000

1989-90

50,000

1990-91

60,000

1991-92

60,000

1992-93

60,000

1993-94

70,000

1994-95

70,000

1995-96

80,000

1996-97

80,000

1997-98

100,000

1998-99

100,000

1999-2000

100,000

2000-01

110,000

2001-02

110,000

2002-03

130,000

2003-04

150,000

2004-05

170,000

Notes:

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10,000 and are consistent with the information supplied in the answer of 8 February 2007.

2. Figures refer to women living in the UK and overseas.

3. Information at this level of detail is not reliable before 1985.

4. Some women who reach state pension age in a particular year with some entitlement to basic state pension may defer their entitlement and claim in a later year.

5. HRP does not reduce the number of qualifying years required for a full basic state pension when that year is already a qualifying year or is one for which a married woman's reduced rate election is in force.

6. Figures refer to those women with some entitlement to basic state pension based on their own contribution record. Entitlement to basic state pension requires satisfying the ‘first contribution condition’ and the ‘25 per cent. rule’. Some women who do not satisfy one or both of these conditions may, nevertheless, also have HRP recorded.

Source:

Lifetime Labour Market Database 2, 2003-04