Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many housing benefit claimants there are in each constituency in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Steve Webb
These are devolved matters which are the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive Minister for Social Development. Northern Ireland statistics and can be found at:
http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/stats_and_research/benefit_publications.htm
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps he has taken to ensure that people in Northern Ireland who were 14 and 15 years of age in 1947 and who paid national insurance have these contributions recognised in their pensions.
Answered by Steve Webb
National Insurance contributions are now an excepted matter and the responsibility of HMRC. However in relation to pensions, Northern Ireland has its own body of law which operates in parity with Great Britain.
Following the fundamental reforms of the National Insurance scheme in 1975 the law provided that only paid contributions and credits from the year in which a person reached age 16 to the year before the one in which they reached state pension age should be included for benefit purposes. The Government has no plans to review the position reached by Parliament in 1975.