State Retirement Pensions

(asked on 13th February 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the net saving that will be made by the public purse from the abolition of the Adult Dependency Increase for pensioners from April 2020.


Answered by
Guy Opperman Portrait
Guy Opperman
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 24th February 2020

In 2007 the then Labour Government decided to end State Pension ADIs as part of a package of reforms included in the Pensions Act 2007. This overall reform package, which took account that State Pension ADIs would stop from April 2020, improved the State Pension position for women meaning more women would get a full basic State Pension. The reforms also provided more generous National Insurance credits for carers. Successive Governments of differing political persuasions since 2007 have continued to support this change.

The savings from ending the provision of State Pension Adult Dependency Increases are estimated to be £125m between 2020/21 and 2024/25, based on analysis from 2018. This only reflects savings on Adult Dependency Increases expenditure and does not take into account any offsetting impacts on other benefits.

We have not made an estimate of the net saving once offsetting impacts on other benefits are taken into account. As at May 2019, total annual expenditure on State Pension Adult Dependency Increases in 2019/20 for people in receipt of both Adult Dependency Increases and at least one of Pension Credit or Housing Benefit was estimated at £7m.

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