HC Deb 23 October 1989 vol 158 cc466-7
8. Mr. Martyn Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many of those on transitional protection will not enjoy a full uprating of their benefits next April.

Mrs. Gillian Shephard

I cannot anticipate the uprating announcement, but more than half those on income support transitional protection are expected to receive an increase at next year's uprating.

Mr. Jones

Will the Minister confirm that the half to whom she refers have not received an increase since April 1987? Does she know of any other group who have received no increase in income for three years? In the time during which transitional payments have been frozen, the cost of living will have gone up by about 19 per cent. by next April. How would the Minister like a cut of one fifth in her income?

Mrs. Shephard

It is correct that after the uprating those still on transitional protection—which should by then be about 5.4 per cent. of the total number of claim—will not receive an increase in their benefit. It should, however, be remembered that those people will still be receiving more benefit than those who have started to receive benefit since April 1988. The hon. Gentleman should also remember that 88 per cent. of all claimants will receive the full uprating in April and that of the other 12 per cent., who are currently on transitional protection, about half will receive some increase.

Mr. Boswell

Does my hon. Friend, whose presence at the Dispatch Box I welcome, agree that it is in the nature of transitional arrangements that they should be transitional and eventually run out? That has nothing to do with the overall level of benefits, on which the Government have a commendable record—for example, in the recent extension of benefits affecting 2.5 million people this month.

Mrs. Shephard

I thank my hon. Friend for his kind remarks. I agree that when there is a massive change in the social security system, such as the one introduced in April 1988, there are bound to be some people who, at the point of change, are adversely affected. That is why the Government introduced transitional protection to ensure that those people are protected from too sudden a change until the benefit to which they are entitled under the new system catches up.

Mr. Robin Cook

Could I tempt the Minister to name the figure about which she is being rather coy? Will she confirm that 200,000 claimants are unlikely to receive any increase next April, and that, by definition, they are likely to be the most frail and disabled, as they were the ones who used to get the highest allowances? What does she say to a pensioner of 81 who has been told that he cannot expect an increase until 1992, and does not know whether he will live to claim it? Will she confirm that every single one of the 200,000 was included in the 88 per cent. of people who, the House were constantly assured, would not be losers as a result of last year's changes? Does not their desperate plight now expose how utterly bogus that claim always was?

Mrs. Shephard

After the uprating about 200,000 people will still be on transitional protection. As I pointed out in an earlier answer, it should be remembered that those people will still be receiving more benefit than those who have come onto benefit since April 1988. I remind the hon. Gentleman that a number of those vulnerable groups have been fully protected, for example for those who need a large amount of domestic help and for those who require respite care the cost of that has been fully updated year by year. In addition, there has been continuous targeting on the most vulnerable groups, in particular the elderly and disabled who have been mentioned so many times today.