Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the cost of moving pensioners who receive less than £156.65 per week onto the new state pension from April 2016.

The new State Pension reforms have been carefully balanced to ensure that the new system will not cost more than the existing system. Therefore, extending the new system rules to existing pensioners (while maintaining cost neutrality) would see many pensioners facing a reduction in their state pension entitlement.

We have no current assessments of the costs of extending the new State Pension reforms to existing pensioners. Information from 2011 is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/223172/cost_140_a_week_state_pension.pdf

A comparison between what current pensioners receive and £155.65 a week is not appropriate because the existing State Pension system is made up of multiple components.

Data regarding the total weekly amount of benefit, by category of pension, for the state pension caseload can be found here:

http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/100pc/sp/amtgp/cat/a_carate_r_amtgp_c_cat_may15.html

The new State Pension introduces a fundamental simplification of the state pension system and we have no plans to extend the new State Pension reforms to existing pensioners. The Guarantee Credit in Pension Credit will continue to provide a safety net for existing and new pensioners.