Severe Weather Payments

HC Deb 10 March 1987 vol 112 cc141-3

9. Mr. Eadie

asked the Secretary of State for Social Service how many claims have been made for exceptionally severe weather payments; and what percentage of those eligible have so far made a claim.

12. Dr. McDonald

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many payments for exceptionally severe weather heating costs have been made in the current winter; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Major

Information on the total number of claims is not available, but by 3 February approximately 1.4 million £5 payments had been made. Some claimants will have received two of more payments. It is not possible to estimate take-up since full returns have not yet been received.

Mr. Eadie

I thank the Minister for that information, but can he be sure that people with the worst fuel bills will have claimed before the deadline period has been reached? Will the Minister give the House an assurance that if there is any evidence that the deadline period is causing a problem he will consider extending it?

Mr. Major

The deadline period has not yet been reached. The period for claims is 13 weeks from the date of the week in which the payments fell due. That is largely to approximate with the fact that most fuel bills are rendered quarterly. The deadline will not be reached until early April, and I am pleased to tell the hon. Gentleman that further claims are still coming in. I shall look at the situation in early April, but I can give no commitment on that.

Dr. McDonald

Is the Minister aware that pensioners in receipt of supplementary benefit, because of the requirement of the £500 limit, are forced to choose between keeping enough money in their savings accounts to bury themselves or heating themselves properly during their lifetime? Will he undertake now to review this £500 limit?

Mr. Major

The hon. Lady may care to bear in mind that we have already reviewed that level and increased it substantially from the £200 that existed at the time the hon. Lady's party was last in Government.

Mr. Andrew Bowden

Is my hon. Friend aware that the changes in the scheme have been greatly welcomed? However, I know of a considerable number of cases in my own constituency where pensioners have put a sum of money aside for their funeral, and with the rising cost of funerals I must ask my hon. Friend to look very carefully to see whether something can be done to increase the low level of savings involved.

Mr. Major

I understand entirely the points made by the hon. Lady and my hon. Friend. If my hon. Friend looks at the new regime that we propose for assistance with funerals, which takes effect from April this year, he will find that many people will have the full cost of their funeral paid and not just the inadequate flat rate of £30 as at present.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

Can my right hon. Friend confirm that under the Labour Government there was no clear method of helping those in need with fuel costs and, indeed, that it was this Government who made severe weather payments available on a statutory basis for the first time? Over and above that, is it not the case that there is substantially increased help for those supplementary pensioners and very many more of them are claiming heating additions?

Mr. Major

I can confirm all those points. This is certainly the first statutory entitlement of this sort and, of course, it is built upon the largest amount of special heating additions being paid that we have seen at any stage.—[Interruption.] We are not abolishing them, we are sinking them into the income support scheme, where they should be. So far as the position before 1979 is concerned, there was no statutory entitlement, no real entitlement and no concern shown by the Labour party.

Mr. Winnick

Is the Minister aware that his complacency in no way helps those people, including our own constituents, who are just above the level of supplementary benefit, who receive no assistance or any form of heating help, and therefore, even in weather such as today's, suffer great anguish simply because they do not have enough funds to provide adequate heating in their homes? Is there not a need to look again at the regulations to make them more generous?

Mr. Major

The hon. Gentleman points to a problem that is always bound to exist when one bases entitlement, as traditionally we have done, on supplementary benefit level. It is precisely for that reason that during the period of this Government we have substantially raised the level of supplementary benefit.

Mr. Dickens

Is the Minister aware that the great success of the severe weather payments scheme is in no small measure due to the support that the Minister has had from Department of Health and Social Security offices throughout the United Kingdom? Furthermore, is the Minister aware that in most cases those payments have been made within one day, and at the very outside within seven days? This is a marvellous effort by Government and civil servants.

Mr. Major

My hon. Friend's point is well made and I am happy to join him in a tribute to the staff who worked so well to ensure that this scheme was successful and that the payments were generally made very promptly.

Mrs. Beckett

Is the Minister aware that almost everything he has said about the record of the last Labour Government in this respect is grossly misleading and that pensioners are much more interested in what is going to happen next winter than in what happened seven winters ago? Since the present scheme, of which he has spoken so highly, will be abolished in April, will he now undertake to do as was suggested last year, look at a sensible winter premium scheme which will run throughout the winter months, and introduce one in time for next winter?

Mr. Major

There is a distinction between a sensible winter premium scheme and the proposition put forward by the hon. Member for Oldham, West (Mr. Meacher). As regards what will happen at the end of this winter, we shall consider the position then and determine what might need to be done for the future.