Pensions bill rise in SLC area

Nicola Findlay The bill for state pe n s i o n s i n S o u t h Lanarkshire has risen by nearly a quar t er since 2009 – according t o new figures released by the UK government.

Pensi ons i n t he l ocal authority area rose from £ 350 million i n 2009/ 10 t o £ 431.63m i n 2013/ 14, an increase of 23 per cent.

It comes as the statistics show that the bill for benefits — excluding state pensions — actually decreased by two per cent in the same period from £447m to £438m.

Meanwhile, there was a sharp decrease i n i ncapacity benefi t pai d out in South Lanarkshire, falling from £50m to £7.7m.

And t he figure f or income support also dropped by more than half — from £48m to £21m.

Incapacity benefit and Income Support was replaced by Employment Support Allowance (ESA) in 2008 and this resulted in the figure for ESA jumping f rom £ 8m i n 2009/ 10 t o £76m in 2012/13.

However, t he amount of Pensi on Credi t s a nd Jobseekers Allowance ( JSA) paid out both fell in the same period.

Pension Credits fell by 20 per cent from £53.18m to £42.44m while JSA dropped slightly from £26.99m to £26.74m.

But there was a rise in both Housing Benefit and Disability Living Allowance ( DL A) by 1 4 . 6 per c e nt and 16 per cent respectively.

Housing benef i t ro s e from £82m to £94m while DLA jumped from £88m to £102m.

Across Scotland the bill f o r s t at e pe ns i o ns r o s e by more than £1.3 billion pounds a year – the total payout was £ 5. 745bn i n 2009/10 - but £7.051bn in 2013/14.

But expenditure on all other benefits f ell by £100m a year across Scotland.

And the combined cost of work- based disability benefits — Incapacity Benefit, Income Support and Employment Support Allowance — was down £ 3 0 . 2 m o v e r t h e s a me period.