Board and Lodging Payments (Hansard, 30 June 1987)

§ 7. Mr. Boyes
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services when he intends to abolish the time limits on board and lodging payments to young people on supplementary benefit.

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security (Mr. Michael Portillo)
April 1989, Sir.

§ Mr. Boyes
Is the Minister aware that the Opposition greatly condemn these pernicous, punitive and unpopular board and lodging payments and the fact that young people will have to wait as long as 1989 for them to be abolished? Why cannot he for once act in a humanitarian way by announcing an immediate end to this lousy and rotten system that was introduced by the Government?

§ Mr. Portillo
From April 1989 unemployed boarders will look to housing benefit to meet their housing costs. The reason for its postponement to April 1989 is precisely because the local authority associations wished it to be that date.

§ Mr. Squire
I congratulate my hon. Friend on his elevation to the Front Bench. His appointment will give much pleasure to many of his colleagues. Does he accept that there are links between homelessness and joblessness, and that a consequence of the present system is that a considerable number of younger people are required to move every few weeks?

§ Mr. Portillo
I am most grateful to my hon. Friend for his kind personal remarks. The evidence from the surveys that we have conducted is not that young people are being forced to move from area to area. Many are remaining in the same area and claiming the benefit at the non-householder rate.

§ Mr. Corbyn
Is the Minister aware that during the summer months——

Hon. Members
Look at the hon. Member's jacket.

§ Mr. Speaker
Order.

§ Mr. Corbyn
Is the Minister aware——

Hon. Members
Look at the jacket.

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. It is often worn in tropical countries.

§ Mr. Corbyn
Speaking on behalf of those in the hills, is the Minister aware that during the summer months many young people, especially in London, face a particular danger in that their board and lodging accommodation is taken away from them to make way for tourists, who are prepared to pay more money for it, and that consequently those young people are thrown on to the streets? What action does the Minister intend to take to protect those young homeless people in the cities from the ravages of the tourist industry?

§ Mr. Portillo
One of the reasons why we have imposed time limits is that we did not want to induce young people into this sort of accommodation. We believe that the levels that have been set for paying these boarding charges are appropriate to the areas in which those levels have been set.

§ Mr. Gale
Will my hon. Friend assure the House that no changes to the current DHSS regulations will be made until the changes to the use classes order 1986 have been clarified, to ensure that no further seaside hotels are turned into DHSS hostels by "dole-on-sea" racketeers?

§ Mr. Portillo
I can certainly reassure my hon. Friend that we are not going back to the bad old days. Under the new system boarders will no longer get special benefit rates over and above those that are paid to other claimants. They will have to meet the enhanced availability for work tests that are being introduced at present. Local authorities will have greater powers to refuse to meet unreasonable charges, rather than greater incentives to do so.

§ Mrs. Beckett
Does the Minister not realise that if people are staying in the same place it is probably because of the number of times on which the Government's regulations have been ruled to be illegal and, therefore, not operative? Does he not recognise that the exemption system is working very badly, that there is tremendous resentment among those who are forced to move round and that it is particularly stupid that by doing so they cannot even get on to a housing list? Will he reconsider the answer that he has given?

§ Mr. Portillo
No. I am not aware of those problems. It appears to me that the system is working well. Twenty five per cent. of youngsters between 16 and 25 are exempt and there is the possibility of applying to the Secretary of State for further exemption. Some 280 cases for exemption have been considered.