Mr. R. C. Mitchell:

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will now introduce legislation to increase retirement pensions to £10 a week for a single person and £16 a week for a married couple.

No, Sir. Retirement pensions were increased by almost 15 per cent. from the beginning of last month. They will be reviewed again next year.

Mr. Mitchell:

Is the Minister aware that, because of the dramatic increase in the price of food, many pensioners, despite recent pension increases, are finding it more and more difficult to get enough to eat? If the Government can find money for expensive projects such as Maplin and the Channel Tunnel, why cannot they find enough to give our pensioners a decent standard of living?

Since the last increase in pensions just over 12 months ago prices have increased by 7·8 per cent. and the pension has been increased by almost 15 per cent.—a substantial margin of improvement. Furthermore, when the hon. Gentleman makes that kind of criticism I am bound to remind him that when the Labour Party was in office it managed to increase the real value of pensions on an annual basis by 2½ per cent. We have increased it by over 3¼ per cent. per annum.

Will my hon. Friend estimate by how much the weekly contribution would have to be increased if the suggested increased pensions were to be wholly financed from that source?

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Billericay (Mr. McCrindle). For the substantial proportion of the working population it would mean an increase in contribution of more than 30p per week, and for many it would mean an increase of more than 50p per week.

Everyone in the House knows, including the Minister, that old-age pensioners need certain essential basic foodstuffs, and it is the cost of those that has gone up. Is the Minister aware that many old-age pensioners cannot now afford gas and electricity, and are having to turn to paraffin for heating and its price has risen so drastically that it is almost as much as petrol? As we know that prices are going up again, will the Minister do something to help?

We all recognise that pensioners suffer first and most when prices rise. The hon. Gentleman's criticisms would carry much more conviction if we had support from him for the Government's counter-inflation policy.

What counter-inflation policy—when chairmen of nationalised boards are being paid £12,000 a year?

We keep a careful watch on foodstuffs. The national food survey for the second quarter of 1973 shows that pensioners are purchasing more cheese, eggs, sugar, jam, fresh green vegetables and bread than a year ago, and more butter.

Are there not invalids, particularly those who suffer from multiple sclerosis, whose just needs far exceed those of a fit and active 65-year-old? If there are any further £10 notes going at any time in future, will the Minister bear in mind that justice demands that these invalids should get them, perhaps even more so than retirement pensioners?

Yes, but I hope that my hon. Friend will recognise that the invalidity pension introduced by the present Government and which has been uprated proportionately more than the increase in other benefits has been of substantial help to the chronically sick. To the disabled we shall be paying in attendance allowance no less than £35 million this year when nothing was paid at all during the Labour administration.