§ Mr. David Winnick (Walsall, North)As you will appreciate, Mr. Speaker, one of our responsibilities is to try to ventilate the concern of our constituents. You are no doubt aware as, first and foremost, a right hon. Member of this House, that many elderly people simply do not know whether the housing benefit increases are to be paid and, if so, from what date, and when they will be compensated. There is total chaos and confusion on the ground, which is causing tremendous hardship, worry and anxiety.
I know that you are not responsible for a statement being made. No statement has been made by the Secretary of State for Social Services since he first made his statement on the Government's climbdown. You may well say that tomorrow is the day for social services questions. I have looked at the Order Paper and believe that I am right in saying that only two questions on this matter are likely to be reached.
It is wrong that we should be denied the opportunity to express on the Floor of the House of Commons the worries of so many people in this country. Literally hundreds of thousands of those people could well be faced with substantial increases. They do not know whether they will have to pay, whether they have the means to do so and when they will receive compensation.
The other point—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. We had a debate on this about 10 days ago and, as the hon. Gentleman correctly said, there are social services questions tomorrow. I have not yet looked carefully at them, but, if the hon. Gentleman says that there are only two on this matter that are likely to be reached, no doubt he is right. I am sure that, as this is a major matter, those on the Front Bench responsible for the organisation of business will have heard what the hon. Gentleman has said, but it is not a matter of order for me.